New York (AP) – hundreds of thousands of federal workers have had just over 48 hours to explain what they achieved during the last week, which has generated confusion in key agencies while billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to reduce the size of the Federal Government.
Musk, who serves as head of cost reduction of President Donald Trump, communicated the extraordinary request in his social network on Saturday.
“According to the instructions of President @realdonaldtrump, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting what they achieved last week,” Musk published in X, which he owns. “Not responding will be taken as a resignation.”
Shortly after, federal employees – including some judges, court personnel and federal prison officials – received an email from three lines with this instruction: “Please respond to this email with approximately five points about what the week achieved the week Past and copy your manager. ”
The deadline to respond was established for Monday at 11:59 in the afternoon, although email did not include Musk’s threat on social networks about those who do not respond.
The last unusual directive of the Musk team injects a new sense of chaos into multiple agencies already overwhelmed, including the National Meteorology Service, the State Department and the Federal Judicial System, while senior officials tried to verify the authenticity of the message on Saturday by the Night and, in some cases, they instructed their employees not to respond.
Thousands of government employees have already been forced to get out of the Federal Labor Force – whether for dismissals or for compensation offers – during the first month of the Trump government, while the White House and the so -called Efficiency Department of the Musk Government say goodbye Both employees and career workers tell the leaders of the agencies to plan “massive personnel reductions” and freeze billions of dollars in subsidy funds federal.
There is no official figure available on the total layoffs or cuts so far, but The Associated Press has counted hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside Washington. The cuts include thousands in the departments of veteran, defense, health and human services, the internal tax service and the national parks service, among others.
The union leaders quickly condemned the ultimatum and threatened with legal measures.
The president of Conge, Everett Kelley, described the new order as an example of Trump’s “absolute disdain” towards federal employees and critical services that provide the US people.
“It is cruel and lack of respect for hundreds of thousands of veterans who are using their second uniform in civil service to be forced to justify their labor functions before this privileged and not elected billionaire who has never made a single hour of honest public service in his Life, ”said Kelley. “EGE will challenge any illegal dismissal of our federal members and employees throughout the country.”
Musk celebrated his new role in a meeting of conservatives on Friday by stirring a huge chainsaw in the air. He called it “the chainsaw for the bureaucracy” and said: “The waste is practically everywhere” in the federal government.
McLaurine Pinover, spokesman for the Personnel Administration Office, confirmed the Musk directive and pointed out that the individual agencies “will determine the next steps.”
What happens if an employee is on a license or vacation? Again, he said that individual agencies would determine how to proceed.
In a message to employees on Saturday night, federal court officials instructed the recipients not to respond.
“We understand that some judges and judicial personnel have received an email … directing the recipient to respond with five achievements of the previous week. Keep in mind that this email did not originate in the Judiciary or in the administrative office and suggest that no action is taken, ”the officials wrote.
Judges from all over the country received emails from the Musk team at the end of January, apparently by mistake, said Federal District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss earlier this month. Moss said he had also received a message and ignored it.
The Directive of the National Meteorology Service recognized some confusion in a message to its employees on Saturday night too.
“In the last hours, some of us – all of us – we receive an email message entitled ‘What did you do last week?’ Until we can verify that the message received around 4:46 in the afternoon east of the United States is authentic, please do not respond. ”
The Directive of the National Meteorology Service continued: “Thank you all for your continuous support and dedication to guarantee the public security and national security of our country.”
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
This article was published by Steve Peoples on 2025-02-22 23:00:00
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