Monday, February 24, 2025

JOB REVIEW ULTIMATUM: US federal agencies push back against Musk

Elon Musk Tells Federal Workers to Detail Work in an Email or Lose Their Jobs - The New York Times

US federal agencies push back against Musk’s job review ultimatum

Multiple US federal agencies, including some led by Trump loyalists, are resisting Elon Musk’s directive for employees to justify their work or risk termination.

Multiple US federal agencies, including some led by prominent Donald Trump loyalists, have pushed back against a move by Elon Musk to force employees to explain what they had achieved at work or risk losing their jobs.

On Saturday, February 22, federal employees received an email seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) from the US Office of Personnel Management giving them until 11:59 pm Monday to submit "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week."
Not long beforehand, Musk had posted on X that "all federal workers" would receive the email and that "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

Federal workers told AFP they had been advised not to reply immediately.

On Sunday, the Defense Department posted a note requesting that staff "pause any response to the OPM email titled 'What did you do last week.'"
"The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures," it said in a post on X.

US media reported that Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI, the State Department and the office of national intelligence also instructed staff not to respond directly.

'Unelected and unhinged'

The new director the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel, sent a message to personnel on Saturday saying, "the FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all our review processes," the New York Times wrote.

Unions also quickly pushed back, with the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), vowing to challenge any unlawful terminations.

In a letter to the OPM on Sunday, the AFGE criticized the power given to the "unelected and unhinged" Musk and said the "email was nothing more than an irresponsible and sophomoric attempt to create confusion and bully the hard-working federal employees that serve our country."

Le Monde with AFP