Musk wants all U.S. civil servants to “explain what they did last week or else they’ll be fired”! All major government agencies ordered: Ignore him

Elon Musk, the head of the U.S. Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), in order to implement drastic reforms, recently asked all federal government employees to explain their work content in the past week, saying that those who did not respond will be deemed to have voluntarily resigned. However, this move was resisted by many federal government agencies, asking employees to ignore Musk's request for a response.
(Previous summary: Musk may trigger a gold "black swan", analysts: DOGE investigates gold reserves or promotes capital flows to Bitcoin)
(Background supplement: Half of the gold in the United States is here. Musk wants to investigate "Fort Knox": No one has checked for 50 years, who can guarantee that it has not been stolen?)

Elon Musk, head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) 23 According to a document issued on the same day, according to the instructions of US President Trump, federal employees will receive an email and must respond to their work details in the past week. Those who do not respond will be directly deemed to have resigned.

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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025

Multiple government agencies asked employees not to respond

However, according to Reuters, multiple U.S. government agencies Agencies have told employees not to immediately respond to Musk's request, and FBI and State Department officials appointed by the Trump administration have sent emails to employees instructing them not to respond without approval from superiors, potentially highlighting tensions between officials within the Republican administration and Musk.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in an email to staff that all FBI review processes are the responsibility of the director's office.

It is understood that federal government employees received an email last Saturday, requesting a detailed description of their work in the past week before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday. The subject of the email was "What did you do last week?" The sender was the HR email address of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Employees at agencies including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Education, Commerce, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are instructed not to respond until further instructions are received. Employees of intelligence agencies will also be told not to respond.

The largest federal employee union in the United States, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), stated on the 23rd that it did not believe that Musk had the right to fire employees who did not respond to the email, and would formally request OPM to withdraw the email. At the same time, the union recommended that members directly ask their superiors if they need to respond and follow their supervisor's instructions.

U.S. Senator John Curtis, Republican of Utah, said that he supports the Trump administration's efforts to reduce government spending, but Musk should adopt a more humane approach and be empathetic. These are real people with families and mortgages. This statement that "if you want to lay off employees, you must be cruel" is wrong. Reform and treating employees well can coexist.

Musk: Just a basic check

However, in response to criticism, Musk tweeted that the email he sent was just "a very basic status check."

This email is a very basic pulse check https://t.co/4qEKErwSuE

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025

Musk also demonstrated his use of Grok The generated fictional response choked:

Some government departments actually think that such a request is too much. This is really disturbing! ! What happened to them? ?

pic.twitter.com/7tz2IuLeo3

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025