List weekly accomplishments or resign, Doge says to US federal workers

U.S. government employees received an email on Saturday afternoon demanding they list their accomplishments from the past week or resign. This is the latest move by the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce. The action has sparked widespread concern and controversy, also foreshadowing potential further personnel adjustments within federal government agencies.

The email was sent after Elon Musk posted on X, stating that employees "will soon receive an email asking what they did this past week." He also added, "Failure to reply will be taken as resignation." As the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), Musk has been actively leading external efforts to drastically cut government spending through funding reductions and layoffs.

The email, with the subject line "What did you do last week?", showed HR as the sender. In a copy of the email obtained by the BBC, employees were asked to explain their accomplishments from the past week in five bullet points by midnight on Monday, without disclosing classified information. The email did not mention whether failure to reply would be considered a resignation. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's human resources agency, confirmed the authenticity of the email in a statement to CBS.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal employees, criticized the email as "cruel and disrespectful" and vowed to challenge any "illegal firing" of federal employees. Union President Everett Kelley said in a statement: "Elon Musk and the Trump administration have once again demonstrated their complete contempt for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people."

Some heads of government departments have expressed disagreement with the email. Newly appointed FBI Director Kash Patel told his employees in an email that they should "pause any response to the OPM memo." The State Department also issued a similar message to its employees, stating that it would respond on behalf of the department. An email from Acting Deputy Secretary of State Tibor Nagy, obtained by U.S. media, stated: "No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of the department's chain of command."

Trump told supporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that federal employees are not productive enough because some of them are working remotely at least part of the time. He also said: "We are purging all unnecessary, incompetent, and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce. We want to make the government smaller and more efficient. We want to keep the best people, and we won't keep the worst people."

Musk's team, through Doge and with the approval of the White House, has implemented extensive reforms to U.S. federal infrastructure. In recent weeks, thousands of government employees at the IRS, the Pentagon, and the FAA, among other agencies, have been laid off. Trump has repeatedly praised Musk's measures to cut government spending, posting on Truth Social that Musk is doing a "tremendous job" in shrinking the federal government and that he would like to see Musk be "more aggressive" in pursuing this goal.