It’s only a simple email. Conservative America is howling with laughter at the way Elon Musk’s legitimate request to federal bureaucrats went cataclysmic. Psychologists will tell you that in any organization, 20 percent of the staff do 80 percent of the work. It’s a well established statistic. Musk found the way to eliminate the deadwood and it sent the federal workforce into hysterics.
Email now voluntary
Musk’s request for an email task accomplishment report started a thermonuclear chain reaction. The fallout is still falling out on Monday, February 24. President Donald Trump took time out of his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron to give it his seal of approval.
Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management officially ruled response is now “voluntary.” Maybe so, but for any worker who wants to remain employed, responding is a pretty good idea.
“There was a lot of genius in sending it,” president Trump declared from the Oval Office. He had nothing but praise for the email idea. “We’re trying to find out if people are working.” Some of them might not even exist.
“We’re sending a letter to people, please tell us what you did last week. If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working.”
Musk touched off the explosion with an email of his own, instructing all federal workers “to respond to the Office of Personnel Management by 11:59 p.m. EST Monday with five bullet points of accomplishments.” Or else.
The intelligence community didn’t like the idea of talking about what they were actually up to. Musk quickly clarified something along the lines of “I worked on my assigned tasks” would get the job done. He just wanted to make sure they’re breathing and checking their messages.
Your supervisor too
President Trump “thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government.” If you don’t answer the email “you’re sort of semi fired or you’re fired.”
OPM made it crystal clear, you won’t be fired. Not automatically. There will be an investigation first. That way if you’re shirking they can fire your supervisor, too.
A growing list of agencies, “including the Pentagon, FBI, State Department and intelligence community, have told their employees to hold off and not respond to the email, with some citing national security concerns.” They’ll be backing down and advising voluntary compliance. President Trump got a chuckle out of the way bureau heads rushed to the defense of their crews.
“That was done in a friendly matter, only thing perhaps Marco at State Department where they have very confidential things or the FBI where they’re working on confidential things. And, they don’t mean that any way combative way with Elon.”
Other than that, Trump grinned, “I think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea. We have to find out where these people are, who are they?” According to the OPM, the “What did you do last week” email sent over the weekend “is voluntary and failure to respond will not equate to a resignation.”
It will result in DOGE crawling up your nether regions with a microscope, though. House Speaker Mike Johnson pointed out “in the public sector it is ‘not unusual‘ to have to fill out ‘routine reports‘ on work performance.” Suck it up and send in an email.
