Elon Musk threatens federal staff with firing

CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on Feb. 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Andrew Harnik | Getty Images

DOGE chief Elon Musk doubled down Monday night on his threat to fire federal employees who fail to submit a list of five or so of their workplace accomplishments over the past week.

“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” Musk said about those workers in a post on his social media site X.

“Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” wrote Musk, whom President Donald Trump has tasked with slashing federal government spending and employee headcount.

The Tesla CEO’s renewed warning came hours after the Office of Personnel Management contradicted his initial threat, telling top human resources officers at departments across the government “that employee responses to the OPM email” demanding the accomplishment tally “is voluntary.”

OPM on Saturday sent out a blast email across the government, telling workers to submit that list by Monday night. That email did not say that employees — who do not work for OPM — had the option of not complying.

Musk on Saturday tweeted about OPM’s email, writing: “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

In an X post on Monday, Musk wrote, “The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!”

“Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers,” wrote Musk, whose worker- and cost-cutting effort is known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”

A newly amended lawsuit filed over the weekend cited Musk’s first threat.

The filing in San Francisco federal court noted widespread confusion and controversy over whether employees must respond to OPM’s email demand.

Some major departments, including the Pentagon, told their employees to hold off on responding to OPM’s demand.

Others, including the Department of Health and Human Services and its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services subsidiary, told their workers to comply.

The lawsuit was first filed Wednesday by a group of unions representing federal workers against OPM and acting OPM director Charles Ezell.

The suit asks a judge to enjoin OPM from terminating “tens of thousands of federal employees in contravention of federal constitutional and statutory law.

OPM on Feb 13 ordered federal agencies “across the government to effectively eliminate the category of probationary employee, by terminating tens of thousands of federal employees en masse,” the suit noted

The suit was amended after OPM in its email implemented a “new mandatory reporting program for all federal employees, the complaint said.

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OPM’s email carried the title, “What did you do last week?”

Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the email said. “Deadline is this Monday at 11:59 EST.”

Before Saturday, federal workers were not required to submit any reports on their work to OPM, the suit notes.

The amended lawsuit says that before Saturday, “no notice was published, in the Federal Register or anywhere else, regarding any OPM program, rule, policy, or regulation requiring all federal employees to provide a report regarding their work to OPM.”

OPM “has not complied with any procedural requirements … with respect to this new program,” the suit alleges.

And, the suit, noted, after OPM sent out the blast email to federal workers on Saturday, “at least some federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, began telling their employees not to respond to this OPM surprise request.”

In addition to the FBI, the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the State Department, and national intelligence agencies have instructed their employees not to immediately respond to OPM’s email.

But the Transportation Department has told employees to respond, according to an email obtained by NBC News on Monday.

“Please also ensure that you exclude classified information, links, and attachments,” the email says.

A judge has scheduled a hearing for Thursday afternoon on the unions’ request for a temporary restraining order blocking the mass terminations.

Musk’s threats to terminate workers who fail to comply was condemned by Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the unions suing OPM.

“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,” Kelley said in a statement.

“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,” Kelley said.