The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) informed agency leaders that employee response to an email asking for a recap of what they accomplished last week is voluntary and that failure to do so will not be considered a resignation.
The guidance given to the human resources officers at every agency undercuts a Saturday push from Elon Musk demanding all federal employees send five bullet notes of what they accomplished in the week prior by 11:59 p.m. EST Monday or face removal.
“This afternoon, OPM during a Chief Human Capital Officers Council meeting, informed agencies that employee responses to the OPM email is voluntarily,” according to an email obtained by The Hill.
“OPM also clarified that a non-response to the email does not equate to a resignation.”
OPM did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The guidance from OPM to human resources leaders comes amid a turf war between agency leaders and Musk.
Several departments have instructed employees not to respond to the email.
In a message to staff Saturday, FBI Director Kash Patel said that “when and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of our review processes and will conduct reviews,” he added.
Department of Homeland Security leadership sent an email to its more than 250,000 employees likewise directing them not to respond to the email.
“DHS management will respond on behalf of the Department and all its component offices,” the email stated.
“No reporting action from you is needed at this time. For now, please pause any responses outside your DHS chain of command.”
OPM was previously sued over the creation of a new email system and its border data collection efforts, a process that forced it to do an after-the-fact privacy assessment.
That document says that response to any email is “explicitly voluntary” but it likewise states “there is a risk individuals will not realize their response is voluntary.”
President Trump, however, defended Musk’s mandate to employees Monday.
“There was a lot of genius in sending it. We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people, ‘Please tell us what you did last week.’ If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The email, sent from the same account that first offered government employees a buyout, was ignited after a social media post from Musk said employees would be fired if they did not recap their accomplishments for the week.
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Musk wrote on his social platform X.
Shortly after, federal workers received an email asking them to relay “approx. five bullets of what you accomplished last week,” with further instruction to include their manager on their reply.
Unions had advised employees not to respond, also sending a letter to OPM saying the push may not be legal, as OPM does not have power over other agencies.
“Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people,” the American Federation of Government Employees said in a statement Saturday.
“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.”
