Elon Musk Demands Federal Workers Justify Their Jobs or Face Dismissal

[Social Media]

 

In a stunning move that has sent shockwaves through the U.S. government, Elon Musk has ordered all federal employees to account for their work over the past week—or risk losing their jobs. The billionaire, who serves as President Donald Trump’s chief enforcer on cost-cutting, announced the directive on his social media platform X, creating immediate confusion and alarm across key agencies.  

Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.

Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025

 

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”  

 

Shortly thereafter, government workers across multiple agencies received a brief email with the subject line: “What did you do last week?” The message instructed them to reply with five bullet points outlining their accomplishments and to copy their manager. The deadline was set for Monday at 11:59 p.m., though the email itself did not include Musk’s warning about potential job loss for those who failed to respond.  

 

The directive has thrown government agencies—including the National Weather Service, the State Department, and the Department of Veterans Affairs—into disarray. Senior officials scrambled to verify the email’s authenticity, with some instructing employees not to respond until further clarification was provided.  

 

Musk has used similar tactics before, most notably at Twitter, where he demanded that employees commit to an “extremely hardcore” work culture or leave the company. Now, as Trump’s administration seeks sweeping reductions in the federal workforce, the same approach is being applied to government employees.  

 

Since Trump returned to office, thousands of federal workers have already been forced out—either through firings or voluntary buyouts—as the White House and Musk’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency push forward with massive job cuts and freezes on federal grant funding. The total number of layoffs remains unclear, but it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of employees across various agencies, including Defense, Health and Human Services, and the Internal Revenue Service, may be affected.  

 

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), condemned the ultimatum as an unprecedented attack on civil servants. “It is cruel and disrespectful to force hundreds of thousands of veterans—who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service—to justify their jobs to an out-of-touch, privileged billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” Kelley said. He vowed that AFGE would challenge any unlawful terminations.  

 

McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management, confirmed the directive and stated that individual agencies would determine how to proceed. Meanwhile, leadership at the National Weather Service acknowledged the confusion, urging employees not to respond to the email until its authenticity could be verified.  

 

Earlier that day, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to praise Musk’s efforts. “He’s doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” the president wrote. “Remember, we have a country to save.”  

 

As federal employees await further clarification, the chaos surrounding the directive underscores the rapidly changing landscape of the U.S. government under Trump’s second term—one in which job security for public servants is anything but certain.

 

Based on a report by The Telegraph US  2025-02-24

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

Great news. The waste of employing far too many government drones has hopefully had it's day in the US.

I wish he'd come here and lay waste to the bureaucracy in this country.

 

As for their future employment prospects, I understand that multiple openings will be occurring in the agricultural field as the illegals will be deported. A win win for the American tax payer- they no longer have to pay for government drones and still get their carrots to eat.

[JonnyF]

Fair enough.

 

If you are incapable or unwilling to justify your position and the work you do then you don't deserve to be paid with the taxes of people who can. 

[Harrisfan]

Maga all the way. Sack the leftist parasites.

[Tug]

7 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

Maga all the way. Sack the leftist parasites.

Absolutely!rite after the felon justifies all the tax money Spent to haul his fat carkass around so he can golf instead of being at work.

[impulse]

7 minutes ago, Tug said:

Absolutely!rite after the felon justifies all the tax money Spent to haul his fat carkass around so he can golf instead of being at work.

Years ago when I was in oilfield sales, the President of my Fortune 500 company would hop on a plane just to join in if I could arrange a golf day with one of our high dollar customers.  Even better were the days I could arrange to go fishing with a good customer.  There's no better opportunity for one-on-one time to bend the customers' ear than a golf or fishing trip.

 

[impulse]

25 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Fair enough.

 

If you are incapable or unwilling to justify your position and the work you do then you don't deserve to be paid with the taxes of people who can. 

 

I'm looking forward to DOGE using cell tower data (a'la Jan6) to show where the employees who claimed to be "working" from home really were.

 

[gk10012001]

Well a lot of people demand things of me , but most have no such authority to do so, and I just ignore them.  Or there is no consequence if I ignore them.  Musk is way out of line.  Having been in the Air Force, and the Government and also worked for several Defense companies, the rules are very simple.  You report to your manager(s). 

 

  Note that many people work on proprietary things, classified things, compartmentallized things, etc.  They can NOT send out any public information over any network or email server!

 

   Does Musk, the acknowledged cannabis user, have a security clearance or access to classified programs? Noforn, Secret, top secret, CNWDI, COMSEC, Yankee White, etc..?

[gk10012001]

2 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

I'm looking forward to DOGE using cell tower data (a'la Jan6) to show where the employees who claimed to be "working" from home really were.

 

Haha.  That is a good one.  It reminds me of an old Mad Magazine paperback story where they showed people at ball games but hanging a big picture behind them of a picture of their living room wall. 

 

  Oh and cell tower data is just one of many ways to track a person's location.  If they are on the internet, their computer IP address is available and the network drops and other information can reveal a great deal of information of where they are when they are logged on

[Yagoda]

Sounds good to me. Nothing makes me seethe more than lazy govt suckholes doing nothing and getting paid.

[Rimmer]

An off topic post has been removed

[impulse]

12 minutes ago, gk10012001 said:

You report to your manager(s). 

 

Who report to their superiors, who report to their superiors who report to The President.  Who has authorized Musk to do the audits.  Musk isn't out of line.  The lefties and MSM are.

 

[impulse]

17 minutes ago, gk10012001 said:

Oh and cell tower data is just one of many ways to track a person's location.  If they are on the internet, their computer IP address is available and the network drops and other information can reveal a great deal of information of where they are when they are logged on

 

My niece worked from home during Covid for a Fortune 50 company.  If she wanted to go away for a few days, she pointed her VPN to Houston where she lived, and logged in from wherever. 

 

She didn't have the capability to spoof the cell tower data like that.  But her managers were extremely happy with her performance, so I doubt they even tried to rat her out.  Might have been different if they had layoffs coming.

 

[bkk6060]

Bunch of lazy do nothings fire them all.

[sammieuk1]

What did you do last week south African grifter apart from wave a chainsaw around your head like a mongal   🤔

[JonnyF]

37 minutes ago, gk10012001 said:

You report to your manager(s). 

 

Yes I worked with an Australian who took that approach when the owner of the company came to Thailand and started asking him about certain things that were not to his liking.

 

He was sacked the next day (by his manager). 

[James105]

8 hours ago, Social Media said:

Senior officials scrambled to verify the email’s authenticity, with some instructing employees not to respond until further clarification was provided.  

 

I can imagine they did.   Binge watching netflix probably doesn't count as an achievement.  

 

If they are caught out by this then they deserve to lose their jobs due to plain stupidity.  He used exactly this approach at Twitter and culled about 80% of its workforce with no noticeable effect on the platform or service.   He was pretty clear a similar approach would be taken for government roles.   

[Yagoda]

1 hour ago, sammieuk1 said:

What did you do last week south African grifter apart from wave a chainsaw around your head like a mongal   🤔

Well if you put your post on X directed to him, he would point out that in the time it took him to read it, his net worth increased by 6x the amount you and everyone you know will ever have, plus he impregnated three super models.

 

How bout you?

[spidermike007]

There's a reason why his popularity is slipping in the polls and he is losing support amongst his own voters. 

 

A wave of frustration over prolonged inflation helped power Trump to victory in November, and a majority of respondents -- 58% -- said inflation would be a major factor in deciding their vote in future elections. But just 32% approved of the job Trump was doing on inflation.

Views of the economy by households deteriorated this month to the lowest level in over a year, according to a widely followed survey by the University of Michigan.

 

"He's just rushing a little bit. I think the whole thing with the DOGE is being rushed a little bit," said Gerald Dunn, a Republican 66-year-old martial arts instructor from Staatsburg, in New York State's Hudson Valley. "I like what he is doing but I think a lot of what he says is just BS. When he starts talking about annexing Greenland and annexing Canada, you know that's just smoke."

 

"I struggle with things like picking a fight with Canada. Why are we picking a fight with Canada?" said Todd Wellman, a 49-year-old Republican from Indianapolis, who said he wrote in now-Vice President JD Vance as his choice for president in November.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-gets-middling-grades-americans-top-issues-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-02-23/

[newbee2022]

Fight, fight, fight ......(for your rights)

[Yagoda]

10 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

There's a reason why his popularity is slipping in the polls and he is losing support amongst his own voters. 

 

A wave of frustration over prolonged inflation helped power Trump to victory in November, and a majority of respondents -- 58% -- said inflation would be a major factor in deciding their vote in future elections. But just 32% approved of the job Trump was doing on inflation.

Views of the economy by households deteriorated this month to the lowest level in over a year, according to a widely followed survey by the University of Michigan.

 

"He's just rushing a little bit. I think the whole thing with the DOGE is being rushed a little bit," said Gerald Dunn, a Republican 66-year-old martial arts instructor from Staatsburg, in New York State's Hudson Valley. "I like what he is doing but I think a lot of what he says is just BS. When he starts talking about annexing Greenland and annexing Canada, you know that's just smoke."

 

"I struggle with things like picking a fight with Canada. Why are we picking a fight with Canada?" said Todd Wellman, a 49-year-old Republican from Indianapolis, who said he wrote in now-Vice President JD Vance as his choice for president in November.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-gets-middling-grades-americans-top-issues-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-02-23/

If you are going to post polls, at least be intellectually honest enough to post them all.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls

[sammieuk1]

52 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Well if you put your post on X directed to him, he would point out that in the time it took him to read it, his net worth increased by 6x the amount you and everyone you know will ever have, plus he impregnated three super models.

 

How bout you?

Well Donald' thanks for asking I sat back and watched a car crash pantomime , you know the one where the so called leader of the free world is a treasonous Russian traitor 🤔

[Snackbar]

Reasonable request from an employer 

[impulse]

3 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

What did you do last week south African grifter apart from wave a chainsaw around your head like a mongal   🤔

 

I think he's been busy preparing to launch a spaceship to rescue the astronauts abandoned up there by the previous administration that refused to approve a rescue before the inauguration, just so no Trump supporters could look good.

 

[rudi49jr]

1 hour ago, Snackbar said:

Reasonable request from an employer 

Elon Musk is not their employer. He has not been appointed to any official position in the government, so he has no authority whatsoever. Maybe he should spend a little more time focusing on his own businesses (like X and Tesla) which do not seem to be performing very well as of late.

[Baht Simpson]

Just say to him we were all walking around like egotistical cretins waving chainsaws. No doubt you approve. 🙂

 

It's not up to employees to justify their jobs. It's up to the management to justify hiring them. 

 

 

 

 

[impulse]

15 minutes ago, Baht Simpson said:

Just say to him we were all walking around like egotistical cretins waving chainsaws. No doubt you approve. 

 

How much per hour was Elon getting paid for that? 

 

Can you see where we may reasonably expect hourly and salaried employees to actually put out and elucidate a product or a service in return for paying them? 

 

And if they're in a paper pushing job (not uncommon in gub'ment), that one person approving 1500 widgets last week may be a keeper and another who approved 12 identical widgets in that same timeframe may not.

 

[Harrisfan]

1 hour ago, Yagoda said:

If you are going to post polls, at least be intellectually honest enough to post them all.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls

Lefties lie non stop. They sound like Chinese bots.

[Harrisfan]

22 minutes ago, rudi49jr said:

Elon Musk is not their employer. He has not been appointed to any official position in the government, so he has no authority whatsoever. Maybe he should spend a little more time focusing on his own businesses (like X and Tesla) which do not seem to be performing very well as of late.

Yes Elon is down to his last dollar.

[it is what it is]

 

the uk needs to get tough with civil servants refusing to work in the office, come to the office or be fired and you can stay home as much as your heart desires.