What to know about Elon Musk’s ‘What did you do last week?’ email

Federal workers faced conflicting guidance from President Trump, their agencies and union leaders in responding to a request to detail their professional accomplishments over the past week.

Here is what we know about the query.

What was Elon Musk’s initial request to federal workers?

An email on Saturday asked staff to respond with a list of “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week” with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday. The email asked employees not to send any classified information. The request, which asked “What did you do last week?” in the subject line, came directly from the Office of Personnel Management, bypassing agency leaders.

Musk, who unveiled the plan Saturday on his social-media platform, wrote on X that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” That guidance wasn’t included in OPM’s email, and OPM later told senior officials that responding to the email was voluntary.

How are federal agencies telling their workers to comply?

Agency leaders split on how to handle the query. Some entities, including the Education and Treasury departments, urged employees to comply. The Commerce Department did so too but specified that the five bullet points go to first-line supervisors instead of OPM.

Others issued qualifications or rebuffed the request. The Energy Department told employees it would provide “a coordinated response” to the OPM email, and urged individual employees not to respond. Health and Human Services told employees to “assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors.”

Kash Patel, Trump’s new director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said over the weekend to staff that they should “pause any responses” to the email sent by OPM, adding that the FBI would conduct further reviews in accordance with the FBI procedures.

Many federal workers told The Wall Street Journal that they planned to follow their supervisors’ instructions. In some cases that means they waited for departments to respond on behalf of all staff.

Some employees said they planned not to reply to OPM’s message because the request came outside their chain of command. Others said that many workers would likely reply out of fear that they would lose their jobs otherwise. Employees conveyed concerns that no matter what they said, their responses might be used against them in the future.

Unions including the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees have called the directive unlawful and said they would challenge any personnel actions against members stemming from the email.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association sent members a template guiding them on how to respond, according to instructions viewed by the Journal.

How will these emails be evaluated?

It isn’t clear how OPM or the Department of Government Efficiency would be able to review potentially millions of detailed emails by federal employees.

In a meeting Monday, OPM told senior officials that there isn’t a plan for how to review these responses, people familiar with the discussion said. Dozens of workers have been fired at OPM, and the Trump administration has indicated it plans to cut 70% of the agency’s staff.

Charles Ezell, OPM’s acting director, told agency heads late Monday that agencies should “review responses and evaluate nonresponses,” considering whether employees were on leave Monday.

The Energy Department said Monday in an email to staff that submissions “will not be utilized to evaluate employee performance.”

What happens to workers who don’t comply?

Trump said early Monday that “If you don’t answer, like you’re sort of semi-fired.” But more wiggle room emerged after OPM indicated that responding was voluntary. Late Monday, Musk posted on X that failure to respond a second time will result in termination, and that subject to the president, workers will be given another chance.

Ezell said it is up to agency leaders to decide how to handle workers who don’t answer the query. HHS employees were told that choosing not to respond wouldn’t affect their employment.

OPM staff indicated to senior officials on Monday that the requests for a summary of accomplishments could become a continuing measure of productivity, people familiar with the matter said.

How are lawmakers responding to these requests?

More than 100 House Democrats told federal agency leaders on Monday that they must clarify that employees “are not obligated to respond to this ill-conceived email stunt” and they decried Musk’s X post.

Some Republican lawmakers are standing behind Musk and Trump, saying it should be easy for federal workers to detail their accomplishments. They have praised the Department of Government Efficiency leader for taking what they see as an unbiased look at spending.

Write to Lindsay Ellis at lindsay.ellis@wsj.com