OPM says responding to accomplishments email is now optional

The OPM email sent on Saturday gave a Monday at 11:59 p.m. EST deadline for workers to, “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.” Musk then posted on X “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

Monday afternoon, OPM informed agency officials that the responses to the email titled “What did you do last week?” would be voluntary and that not responding would not be considered a voluntary resignation. 

An email reviewed by WUSA9 adds, “If you choose to respond, it is important to adhere to the laws and Agency policies regarding disclosure of information about your work to those outside of the Agency.”

WUSA9 reached out to OPM for confirmation of the new guidance, but we have yet to receive a response. 

The email created confusion among the federal workforce with some departments — including Defense, Homeland Security and State — telling workers not to reply to the email. Other agencies like Transportation, Health and Human Services and Secret Service encouraged their staff to respond.

On Monday. President Donald Trump praised Musk, who he has tasked with the job of helping cut down on federal spending. 

“I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government,” the president said. “So by asking the question, tell us what you did this week, what he’s doing is saying, are you actually working? And then if you don’t answer like you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.”

Unions representing federal workers have amended an existing lawsuit against the Trump administration to include the recent email. The court filing argues that the message violates laws regarding federal workforce and that OPM does not have the authority to make the demand. The lawsuit also argues that the proper procedure was not followed to implement the demand. 

More than 100 House Democrats sent the heads of the federal agencies a letter today demanding that they immediately clarify that federal employees are not obligated to respond. 

“This stunt is yet another example of the cruel and arbitrary chaos Mr. Musk inflicts on the American people by carelessly ‘taking a chainsaw’ to the people’s government and the dedicated public servants who keep it running,” the letter reads.