Officials at multiple US government departments offered staff conflicting guidance on how to respond to a Saturday email touted by Trump adviser Elon Musk requesting they list their accomplishments from the past week.
The guidance marks notable public disagreement between Trump appointees who manage thousands of bureaucrats and Musk who – as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – has been leading an outside effort to aggressively reduce government spending.
Some heads of agencies encouraged staff to comply while others requested employees wait for further guidance on how to appropriately respond.
President Donald Trump has yet to comment on the email.
The message sent to millions of federal employees Saturday evening came after Musk posted on his social media platform X that government staff would “shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week”.
In a copy of the email obtained by the BBC, employees were asked to respond explaining their accomplishments from the past week in five bullet points – without disclosing classified information – before midnight on Monday. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government’s human resources agency, confirmed the email was authentic.
The message did not mention whether declining to comply would be considered a resignation, despite Musk’s social media assertion that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation”.
Newly confirmed FBI director Kash Patel told his employees in a separate email later Saturday that they should “pause any responses”.
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel wrote in a message obtained by CBS News. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures.”
The state department sent a similar message to its employees, saying its leadership would respond on behalf of the agency.
“No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” an email from Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary for management, said.
In a sign that the OPM email may have come as a surprise to many agencies, a senior figure at the Department of Justice wrote to staff on Saturday evening to say: “Media reports indicate the email was distributed to employees throughout the federal government.” The message added, “at this point, we have no reason to believe this message is spam or malicious”.
Later on Saturday evening, a follow-up email was sent clarifying that the OPM message was “legitimate” and that “employees should be prepared to follow the instructions as requested”.
The DoJ message also came with a warning to staff: “Do not include any sensitive, confidential, or classified information in your response. Should you have any questions about the contents of your response please contact your supervisor.”
“If we receive additional guidance or information, I will update all employees, as necessary.”
Other departments, including the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requested that employees wait for further guidance.
OPM did not immediately respond to the BBC’s inquiries about whether some staff might be exempt.
The request also poses logistical questions. Federal law prohibits some of the roughly 3 million federal workers from accessing email outside their working hours. Other government employees, such as those at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were placed on leave in the last month.
Some Republican members of Congress defended Musk and his broader efforts on Sunday.
Congressman Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, described Musk’s efforts as a “comprehensive, forensic audit of every department and agency in the federal government” and told ABC that the Doge chief was trying “to find efficiencies across the board”.
But Senator John Curtis, a Republican representing Utah, criticised Musk’s methods, though said he supported the ultimate goal of Doge’s efforts.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages,” Curtis said in an interview with CBS.
“I don’t think this is a request that is that difficult. I would ask my employees to let me know what they’re doing. But I will double down on the fact of we don’t need to be so cold and hard,” he added.
