Elon Musk says that federal employees must document their work – or lose their jobs: NPR

Federal employees in the US government received an e -mail on Saturday afternoon with the question of taking into account what they have done in the past week – and Elon Musk says they will lose their jobs if they do not respond.

The e -mails arrived a few hours after Musk, which leads the Department of Government Efficiency Team That has the Mass From at least 20,000 government workers in the past month, knowledge of the apparent Ultimatum.

“In accordance with President @realdonaldrump’s instructions, all federal employees will soon receive an e -mail to understand what they did last week,” Musk wrote on xthat he possesses. The post ends: “Not responding will be taken as a resignation.”

The e -mails that NPR confirmed have been sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). They ask employees to answer and provide “about 5 bullets of what you achieved last week and CC your manager”, and give a deadline of Monday 11:59 pm et. They ask that no classified information is shared.

Onm said in a statement that the e -mails “are part of the dedication of the Trump government to efficient and responsible federal staff”, and that “agencies will determine all the following steps.”

The legality of the request is doubtful, since it was made directly by OPM and not by agencies themselves. Many federal employees fall under the protection of officials who prevent them from being fired for no reason.

Last week, in response to the mass shooting of probation employees, Trump administration has sued trade unionsclaim that OpM has no authority to manage employees from other federal agencies than his.

Their complaint points out federal status This states: “The head of an executive department or military department can prescribe regulations for the government of its department, the behavior of its employees, the distribution and implementation of its activities, and guardianship, use and retention of its data, articles and property. “

In other words, although OpM deals with many Human Resource functions for the federal workforce, it does not have a conference authority to tell other agencies what to do. “Each agency has its own authorizing articles of association that rule its administration,” wrote the lawyers of the trade unions.

Suzanne Summerlin, a labor lawyer and expert in federal employment relationships, said that a termination for refusing to respond to the e -mail would probably not be legal.

“Defend someone who was unable or not prepared to respond, would be a disproportionate punishment by a labor arbitrator,” she said.

But the employee could therefore still be confronted with discipline.

“A letter of reprimand or a suspension would probably be found proportionally by an arbitrator,” Summerlin said.

Employee, confusion of the agency

Many employees remained confused by the implications of the E -mail. In an e -mail to employees of the CyberSecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), officials from the agency said the E -mail from OpM is “a valid request”.

But some agencies told employees to ignore the missionary.

New FBI director Kash Patel sent a message to the FBI staff that the agency will revise its own processes and that employees must deduct the responding to the E -mail from OPM. The FBI -E -mail was confirmed by a person at the agency who is not authorized to speak publicly.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also informs its employees that the Department is planning to respond on their behalf, so that employees are not obliged to report their activities directly to the OPM -E -mail, according to a screenshot of the communication obtained by NPR.

At another agency, in a division within the Ministry of Defense, a supervisor said that the staff had to wait to answer until they receive internal guidelines on how to respond, according to an e -mail that is shared with NPR.

“In the meantime, don’t answer the many sensitive activities of the [department]”The e -mail reads.

In a statement that responds to the E -mail messages, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFFID) said – which represents more than 800,000 officials – that it would challenge illegal dismissals from federal employees.

“Again, Elon Musk and the Trump government have shown their completely contempt for federal employees and the critical services they offer to the American people,” said National President Everett Kelley.

“It is cruel and disrespectful for hundreds of thousands of veterans who wear their second uniform in the civil servant to justify their job tasks to this out-of-touch, privileged, non-chosen billionaire who has never performed one hour of fair public services in his Life, “Kelley added.

The e -mails come when Musk and the new Trump government continue to exist to the government workers and the removal of top leaders from federal agencies.

It is a well -known management tactics for Musk. The billionaire pulled a similar movement At the helm of at least two of his companies, Twitter – before he renamed the social platform to X – and Tesla, where he obliged weekly reports from his employees of his employees and presence.

Late Saturday evening, Musk wrote on x About the e -mail to federal employees: “To be clear, the bar is very low here. An e -mail with a few list signs that are not at all simple is acceptable! Must take less than 5 minutes to write.”

NPRs Shannon Bond” Stephen Fowler” Andrea HSU“ Ryan Lucas And Tamara Keith contributed reporting.