Elon Musk has sent shockwaves through the American government, and after over 200,000 federal workers have apparently already stepped down or been fired since President Trump returned to office, the Department of Government Efficiency is continuing its efforts to slash roles and save dollars.
After Trump told Elon Musk to be more 'aggressive' as the head of the DOGE, the tech billionaire wasted no time in reinforcing the POTUS' mandate to return to in-office work. Alongside this, Musk gave federal workers just 48 hours to send him a five-point bullet email on their accomplishments in the past week. Despite facing backlash from staffers and senators alike, Musk reiterated that if anyone didn't respond, it would be taken as a resignation.
That's all well and good, but with the likes of the FBI and National Security Agency telling employees not to respond, the federal workforce remains split.
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According to one report from The Washington Post, Musk's email might not even be legal, questioning whether they can really fire the presumed thousands who didn't respond to his 'What did you do last week?' email.
After sending the email to some 2.3 million federal workers, Musk referred to it as a ‘pulse check’, and elsewhere said: "To be clear, the bar is very low here. An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write."
Explaining what should happen next, McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), confirmed that agency managers "will determine any next steps" once workers have replied: "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."
As highlighted by The Washington Post, some federal employees are prohibited from revealing information about their work without specific approval, while others in the Defense Department might be on tour or in regions where they can't check emails. Added to this, there are scores who have no access to their government devices after being placed on administrative leave by the Trump administration.
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More than the tight deadlines, Nick Bednar, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, suggests the whole thing could be illegal. Bednar points out that federal law states that the resignation of government employees must be voluntary, suggesting Musk's 'no reply' mandate is unlawful.
Bednar expanded: "The analogy to this is I send you an email and I give you a day to respond or you owe me a million dollars.
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"I can’t take that to court and say, well, they didn’t respond so they clearly accepted they were going to give me a million dollars."
Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, referred to the whole thing as "arson on a public asset, which is the workforce."
Calling Musk's actions into question, Stier concluded: "It is certainly the case that there is no legitimate force behind the idea that if people don’t respond they can assume it’s a resignation. He can tweet what he wants, but that will not have that kind of legal validity."
With the deadline having been and gone, and Musk having seemingly given staff another chance, all eyes are on 'First Buddy' Musk to see what happens next.