Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has issued an ultimatum to federal employees: document your work or resign.
The directive, announced via a Saturday afternoon post on X, requires federal workers to provide a detailed account of their activities from the previous week, with a deadline of Monday at midnight.
“In accordance with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting that they understand what they accomplished last week. Failure to respond will be interpreted as a resignation, Musk wrote.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees federal employment, issued a statement confirming the directive.
“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,” according to the statement. “Agencies will determine any next steps.”
The directive is part of President Donald Trump’s larger push to shrink the federal government’s size and cost.
Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has issued executive orders that end remote work options for federal employees and offer voluntary buyouts to thousands of workers. According to Trump, about 75,000 federal employees have accepted “deferred resignations.”
Musk, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, was appointed by Trump to lead DOGE, a newly established department tasked with identifying and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse across federal agencies.
Since his appointment, Musk has implemented dramatic reductions in federal spending, including layoffs and the termination of probationary employees at several health agencies.
On Saturday, Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and praised Musk’s efforts. “DOGE is now waging war on government waste, fraud, and abuse, and Elon is doing a great job,” he said. “We want to make government smaller and more efficient. We want to keep the best people; we will not keep the worst.”
The directive comes after a series of high-profile cuts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) last weekend, where DOGE held marathon meetings to identify additional reductions.
Despite probationary employee layoffs and voluntary buyouts, the NIH continues to employ more full-time employees than it did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
