FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and heads of several other federal agencies have advised employees not to respond to Elon Musk’s email demanding federal workers list five accomplishments from the past week or risk losing their jobs.
In a memo cited by NewsNation, Patel said the bureau would handle future responses to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) inquiries.
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Musk — who has led the White House effort to slash the federal government — announced Saturday afternoon on his social platform X that federal employees would soon get an email “requesting to understand what they got done last week.”
The email instructs federal workers to respond to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by 11:59 p.m. EST Monday with “approx. 5 bullet points of what you accomplished last week.” Musk also warned that “failure to response will be taken as a resignation.”
But besides FBI and intelligence community, a growing list of agencies, including the Pentagon and State Department, on Sunday had told their employees to hold off.
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel wrote in his message. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.”
“When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses,” Patel continued. “For now, please pause any responses.”
Gabbard sent similar guidance to employees of agencies she oversees in the intelligence community (I.C.), the New York Times reported.
“Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email,” she reportedly wrote.
The State Department also instructed its employees not to respond, according to NBC News.
“The State Department will respond on behalf of the Department. No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” read a notice from Tibor Nagy, acting under secretary for management at the State Department.
The Department of Defense shared a message to its employees on the social platform X, noting it is responsible for reviewing employee performance.
“When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week,’” Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Darin Selnick said in a statement.
The email has also elicited an angry response from federal employee unions.
In a letter addressed to OPM acting director Charles Ezell, along with Musk, Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), directed its 800,000 members to not respond to the received request.
In his letter, Kelly said the email fails to identify legal authority for OPM to make the request. He slammed the message as “irresponsible” and a “sophomoric attempt” to cause confusion and intimidate federal workers.
Musk defended the email Sunday, praising those who gave “good responses” and saying the request intends to spot “outright fraud” from people who aren’t doing any work.
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President Donald Trump backed Musk posting a SpongeBob meme mocking federal employees in the wake of the email sent at Musk’s direction.
The meme posted on Trump’s Truth Social platform features the Nickelodeon character looking at a notepad with a heading that reads “Got Done Last Week.”
Items on the list include “Cried about Trump,” “Cried about Elon,” “Made it into the office for once,” “Read some emails” and “Cried about Trump and Elon some more.”