Washington DC [USA]: A new directive from the Trump Administration requiring federal employees to report their weekly work activities has met with resistance from several government agencies, CNN reported.
Top federal agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have advised their employees to pause responses to the directive, which was issued via email by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
According to a memo cited by CNN, Darin Selnick, Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, instructed DoD employees not to respond immediately.
“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures. When and if required, the department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week’,” Selnick wrote.
Despite the opposition, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been tasked with leading cost-cutting efforts under President Donald Trump, remains optimistic about potential savings.
“We are increasingly optimistic that, as the immense waste & fraud are eliminated from Social Security & Medicare, there is potential to increase actual dollars received by citizens & improve healthcare,” Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Musk, who serves as Trump’s Chief of Cost-Cutting Initiatives, further reinforced the administration’s stance by posting a directive on X.
“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,” Musk warned.
Shortly after his post, federal employees—including judges, court staff, and federal prison officials—began receiving an email with simple instructions:
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
The directive has sparked concerns among federal workers, with some agencies pushing back against what they see as an abrupt and potentially coercive measure.