Staffers on the taxpayers wage bill were sent an ultimatum by Elon Musk and his new government department over the weekend, and while thousands worry for their jobs, an employment lawyer has weighed into problem.
Taking to Twitter on Saturday (February 22), the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) issued an email to all federal workers asking for them to list five things they did last week or face the axe.
Elon Musk, the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, has vowed to cut the federal wage bill (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
When thousands of staffers didn’t comply, including FBI agents with the agency urging their workers to ignore the email, the Tesla CEO fumed at their alleged ‘incompetence’ before setting another ultimatum.
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” Musk tweeted.
But should federal workers be worried? Well, according to R. Scott Oswald, managing principal of The Employment Law Group, there are three major problems with the tech-mogul’s demands.
“So, everything about this reeks of an extra legal effort here to please the president,” Oswald explained.
“There are a number of different problems with the email itself. The primary problem with it is that it’s coming from the Office of Personnel Management rather than the individual supervisory chain.
Responding to this email would take less than 2 minutes for any truly productive person. Why is this in any way controversial?
“So generally, federal government employees, like all employees, are required to follow instructions that their supervisors give, so long as those instructions are lawful and unequivocal, but they must come from somebody in the supervisory chain.
“And so the first problem is that this email is coming from someone who is not in any employee supervisory chain, unless we’re talking about people at the Office of Personnel Management.”
So, for those employees that may have missed the deadline for whatever reason, your job could actually still be protected.
Oswald continued: “The second problem with the email is that it likely is going to elicit information from at least some employees that is unlawful.”
He went on to explain that many employees have agreements in place with their employer, wherein they commit to keep certain information confidential.
Federal workers had a shock when they signed into their computers on Monday (Getty stock)
Included in these roles are law enforcement officials, as well as other types of positions like lawyers, doctors, and nurses.
“So the instruction likely would require individuals to disclose information that would violate their covenants that they’ve made, separate, but usually to a security office or to another chain of command.”
While the final issue relates to differing advice employees will have heard from whichever agency they work for.
“The last problem with it is that we’ve got agencies that are giving conflicting advice. Some are saying you should respond, others are saying you shouldn’t respond, so we don’t have an unequivocal instruction.”
If you’re a federal worker, hopefully this will help you sleep better!
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Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Topics: Business, Elon Musk, Politics, Technology
Joe Yates
Elon Musk reveals reason why all federal workers just received an email with an ultimatum
A Pentagon official slammed the email as the ‘silliest thing in 40 years’
Elon Musk has revealed why he sent all federal workers an email with an ultimatum over the weekend in a move critics said was ‘silly’.
Musk, who runs the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force that is on a mission to cut government costs, sent federal staff a rather unusual email on Saturday (February 22) with an ultimatum that suggested workers who fail to respond wouldn’t have a job to return to.
Musk’s email demanded federal staffers list five tasks they completed in the last week by 11.59pm on Monday – or resign, which sent the workforce into a panic over the weekend.
Writing on Twitter, he said workers were expected to share ‘what they got done last week’ and failure to respond ‘will be taken as resignation.’
The government‘s HR agency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed the email was legitimate in a statement to CBS.
According to the BBC, employees were asked to list their accomplishments in five bullet points and one Pentagon official reportedly told CNN it was ‘the silliest thing I’ve seen in 40 years and completely usurps the chain of command.’
Some key US departments also reportedly instructed staff not to comply with Musk’s demands, but the Tesla founder and SpaceX CEO said on Twitter he had already received a ‘large number of good responses’ as of Sunday (February 23), adding: “These are the people who should be considered for promotion.”
Musk has revealed the real reason why he sent the email on Saturday (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The action came as president Donald Trump ordered Musk, dubbed his ‘First Buddy’, to ‘get more aggressive’ last week.
Now, the billionaire tech mogul has lifted the lid on the real reason why he sent the controversial demanding email.
Musk said on Twitter he sent the command to ‘see who had a pulse and two working neurons.’
He also claimed government workers don’t even check their emails, implying that the task was more about who was checking in and bothered to reply rather than the contents of their response.
Musk wrote: “This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.
“Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will,” Musk concluded.
FBI Director Kash Patel told his team not to reply (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Yet, several department leaders advised their staff not to obey the order, with newly appointed FBI boss Kash Patel telling his team to hang fire as well as intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, instructing staff to ignore it.
Patel’s message read: “FBI personnel may have received an email from OMP requesting information,. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.”
“For now, please pause any responses,” his email concluded.
Meanwhile, Gabbard said to staff: “Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email.”
Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, also advised staff to disregard Musk’s email (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Department of Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem also told their teams to disregard the email, reports The Daily Mail.
However, Musk said anyone who shares the attitude of the Pentagon insider ‘needs to look for a new job.’
DOGE claims it has spared $55 billion from the budget through cost-cutting initiatives so far, like canceling contracts and leases, selling assets and detecting fraud across governmental departments from education, personnel management and health and human services to agriculture and international development.
