President Donald Trump on Monday voiced support for Elon Musk's efforts to track productivity. (Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)
Musk unveiled the email in a post on X on Saturday and cautioned that a failure to reply was equivalent to handing in a resignation.
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
Federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel and Management on Saturday that instructed them to provide a list of five things they accomplished the previous week by a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday.
The American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union for federal workers, criticized the policy and said Trump and his administration have once again demonstrated "utter disdain" for federal employees.
"It is cruel and disrespectful for federal employees 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," American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a Saturday statement.
The federation "will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country," Kelley said.
DOD TELLS CIVILIAN WORKFORCE TO IGNORE ELON MUSK'S REQUEST TO REPORT PRODUCTIVITY
Elon Musk unveiled plans requiring federal employees to recap their productivity for the week, prompting pushback from union groups. (The Associated Press)
Meanwhile, multiple agencies have issued instructions telling their employees to disregard Musk’s guidance.
For example, the Department of Defense issued a letter to its civilian personnel asserting the Pentagon’s autonomy on Sunday and directing employees to ignore Musk’s request to send details of their work week to the Office of Personnel Management.
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"DoD personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information," wrote Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures.
"When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM," he wrote. "For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled, 'What did you do last week.'"
FBI Director Kash Patel issued a similar directive to his staff and said the agency "will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures," according to the Associated Press.
DOGE, which is tasked with weeding out government overspending, is facing multiple lawsuits from government employees seeking to challenge Musk’s efforts to audit various federal agencies.
Fox News' Greg Wehner, Jennifer Griffin and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/you-dont-answer-youre-fired-trump-lays-out-consequences-failing-follow-musks-productivity-repor