Elon Musk Using Tough Twitter Tactics on Federal Workforce, Telling Employees To Justify Their Jobs

Elon Musk has taken a page out of his own playbook from his initial takeover of Twitter, announcing that an email was sent to nearly every federal employee urging them to provide a list of recent accomplishments or face getting axed from their positions.“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” He said in a post on X. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”Officials with the Office of Personnel Management confirmed that the request by the Department of Government Efficiency was emailed to all federal agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency.“As part of the Trump administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday, CC’ing their manager. Agencies will determine any next steps,” spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover told the Wall Street Journal.Copies of the email, which were obtained by the newspaper, asked in its subject line, “What did you do last week?”The message also gave a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday to send back a list containing “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.” Employees were also instructed not to send any classified information.Contrary to Mr. Musk’s claims on social media, the email did not say that any nonresponses would be considered a resignation.His statements mirrored his actions from 2022 when he purchased the social media site that he eventually turned into the X platform. He sent a companywide memo to staff asking them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work culture or leave their positions.“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Mr. Musk wrote at the time in an email with “A fork in the road,” in its subject line. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”“If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” he added.OPM also recently sent an email to federal employees with the same subject line, offering them eight months of severance pay if they resigned.“At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency, but should your position be eliminated, you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions,” the email said.Nearly 65,000 employees accepted the buyout offer.Despite the ultimatum given by Mr. Musk over the weekend, not every agency is allowing them to respond to the email just yet.Mr. Trump’s new FBI director, Kash Patel, told staff that they should “pause any responses” to the email they received from OPM.“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all our review processes and will conduct further reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures,” Mr. Patel wrote in the message, a copy of which was obtained by the Journal.Employees at the Department of Justice were also instructed to hold off on their response until management could provide further guidance.The president of the nation’s largest federal employee union, The American Federation of Government Employees, Everett Kelley, said they would challenge any “unlawful” firings of its members.“Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people,” he said in a statement released on Saturday. “It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.”

Elon Musk Using Tough Twitter Tactics on Federal Workforce, Telling Employees To Justify Their Jobs

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