Elon Musk has stated that U.S. federal workers have “another chance” to justify their work or face potential job loss, following the passing of his original deadline on Tuesday.
The deadline had required federal employees to explain their work achievements in an email, but several federal agencies, including some led by Trump loyalists, instructed staff to disregard Musk’s request, at least temporarily.
Musk, the world’s richest person and a major donor to former President Donald Trump, had initially given government workers until the end of Monday to respond. The email demand is part of his ongoing efforts through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce federal staffing and spending. On Monday evening, Musk tweeted, “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.” However, he did not set a new deadline.
The original deadline caused confusion and anxiety among federal employees, with many unsure of how to respond to Musk’s request. Some agencies had even told their employees to temporarily ignore the email. Musk later criticized the response, calling his original request “utterly trivial” and pointing out that many employees failed to meet the “inane test,” which he said some managers even encouraged.
DOGE, the entity Musk runs, has faced growing resistance to its cost-cutting efforts, including legal challenges and pressure from lawmakers. Over two million federal workers received an email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Saturday, requiring them to submit “approximately 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week” by 11:59 pm Monday. This message followed Musk’s earlier post on X, where he announced that failure to respond would be treated as resignation.
Amid the growing confusion, Trump defended Musk’s initiative, calling it “ingenious” as it would help identify whether federal employees were actually working.
He suggested that non-responders would be “sort of semi-fired” or fully fired, without elaborating further. Musk, in turn, clarified that Saturday’s email was “basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.”
