OPM Says Response to Musk’s “What Did You Do Last Week” Email is Voluntary

It was a weekend of stress and widespread confusion throughout the federal workforce, after employees were sent an email from HR@OPM.gov at the behest of Elon Musk ordering them to provide a bulleted account of their workweek or resign.  

But the Trump Administration is now backtracking, with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) saying that responding to the email is voluntary and that failing to respond will not constitute a resignation. OPM is leaving the decisions on responding up to agencies. 

The move undercuts Musk, the billionaire head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who’s email to federal employees asked them to reply with “ approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.” If no response was received by Monday, February 24 at 11:59pm eastern, the employee would be considered to have resigned, Musk said in a social media post. 

The backtrack comes after a number of agencies pushed back and told employees not to respond. Many of them are in the national security realm, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), State Department, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DOD), and Department of Energy (DOE) 

New FBI Director Kash Patel told employees to ignore it. 

“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” said Director Patel. 

DHS meanwhile told employees there would be a department-wide response.

As did the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

“You are not required to respond, and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond,” acting NASA administrator Janet Petro wrote to staff,  according to the Washington Post. “NASA is proud of our accomplishments … to that end, NASA will send an agency response.”

Meanwhile the Treasury Department told workers at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to respond.

“Given the voluminous and extremely important work that Treasury staff perform on a daily basis, we expect that compliance will not be difficult or time-consuming,” said John W. York, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. 

At the Department of Commerce, it was a bit of compromise. 

Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeremy Pelter said employees should craft five bullet points “relating to your activities last week,” but not send the email to OPM. 

President Defends Musk

Despite the pushback from his own cabinet members, President Trump went to bat for Musk and the billionaire’s efforts to trim the federal workforce, insisting there is no disconnect between Musk and his cabinet. 

“They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon,” said President Trump. “They’re just saying there are some people that you don’t want to really have them tell you what they’re working on last week.” 

The president also added that there was a lot of “genius” in sending the initial email. 

Still, observers like former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin note the email drama shows that Musk’s cost-cutting has gone too far too fast, in the eyes of some agency leaders.

“DOGE’s stated objective was to reorganize the agencies to meet their goals, but Cabinet heads want to run their own agencies, and they are objecting to the across-the-board cuts coming from Musk’s team,” said Holtz-Eakin, now president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank.