Labor unions and advocacy groups have asked a federal court to prevent retaliation against government employees, after Elon Musk issued an ultimatum demanding they detail in bullet points what they do at their jobs or face dismissal.
The weekend email sent to millions of employees was the latest salvo in Musk’s campaign, authorized by Donald Trump, to dramatically downsize the federal government. Over the weekend, a coalition of groups opposed to the mass layoffs asked a court to prevent reprisals against employees who fail to reply by the deadline of Monday at midnight.
“This request, and the resulting confusion, is not just inappropriate – it is disruptive to essential government functions,” wrote Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit originally filed to stop the mass firings of probationary workers.
Several federal departments have reportedly told their employees not to respond to the email, which was sent from the office of personnel management (OPM), one of the first federal organs Musk and his team on the so-called “department of government efficiency” infiltrated after Trump was sworn in.
Longtime federal workers have also spoken out against the unusual demand, with one unnamed defense department official criticizing the scheme to CNN as “the silliest thing I’ve seen in 40 years”.
That prompted Musk to retort “anyone with the attitude of that Pentagon official needs to look for a new job”.
Musk’s ultimatum was sent out on Saturday in a mass email to federal employees from OPM, and gave all the US government’s more than 2 million workers barely 48 hours to itemize their accomplishments in the past week in five bullet points.
In a separate message, Musk indicated that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation”.
The order provoked instant chaos across the government, with Trump’s own appointed leadership in federal agencies responding in starkly different ways. Workers in the Social Security Administration and the health and human services department were told to comply with the email.
CNN reported that the Department of Transportation ordered all its employees to respond to the Musk email by the deadline of Monday at midnight. That included air traffic controllers who are currently struggling with severe understaffing and a spate of recent accidents.
By contrast, employees in other federal departments were told to await further orders or to simply ignore Musk’s edict.
The new director of the FBI, the Trump loyalist Kash Patel, told agents to “please pause any responses”. Employees with the homeland security department were similarly informed that “no reporting action from you is needed at this time”.
Despite Musk’s retort to the anonymous Pentagon official, all employees at the Department of Defense, who now answer to the former Fox News host and Trump acolyte Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, were also told to pause responding to the OPM missive.
At least 20,000 federal workers have so far been fired by the Trump administration, most of them recent hires on probationary periods who lack employment protections. In addition, the White House claims that more than 75,000 employees have accepted a buyout.
The purge has prompted speculation that Trump is engaging in one of the biggest job cutting rounds in US history, which could have a powerful knock-on effect on the American economy.
