Federal employees are receiving new messages that require them to detail what they accomplished during the previous week.
The directive is part of a broader initiative by President Trump, supported by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, to cut the federal workforce by asking workers to justify their roles.
A similar email was sent last week, where employees were asked to list five tasks they completed in the previous five days. Those who failed to respond were considered to have effectively resigned. The latest email, titled “What did you do last week? Part II,” came directly from individual agencies rather than through the usual human resources office.
In this new directive, staff are asked to reply with a few bullet points summarizing their work for the past week and to copy their managers on the reply. In cases where the work is classified or sensitive, employees are instructed to simply state that all activities are sensitive. The emails are set to become a regular weekly assignment, with responses due by Monday at the end of the day Eastern Time.
The previous round of emails led to confusion and backlash among government departments, with some officials clarifying that the measure was not mandatory. In addition, fewer than half of the employees responded to the initial email. The president expressed his displeasure with the low response rate, and just before the deadline, Elon Musk added that the emails were intended as a test of basic email response capability.
At the same time, a memo from the administration directed agencies to shrink their workforce further, resulting in many probationary employees being dismissed and others being offered early retirement packages.