Infamous Elon Musk email sent to millions of federal workers leaked online
US federal workers have reported receiving an email from the government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) asking them to outline what they achieved at work in the past week.
Screenshots of the now-infamous email, announced yesterday by Donald Trump's right-hand man Elon Musk, were leaked to Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) by dozens of federal employees.
The email, sent from the OPM, asked around two million workers to "reply to this email with approx. 5 bullet points of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager".
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Elon Musk pictured at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC. AP
Workers were given just 24 hours' notice to reply and share details of the work they produced in the last week.
As the emails landed in the inbox of millions, federal agencies were quick to assure workers they did not need to follow the directive.
The Department of Defence, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the US Courts System are among the agencies telling employees to ignore the email, according to multiple reports.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents federal workers in the US, wrote an open letter to OPM and slammed the email as "plainly unlawful".
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"I have received numerous reports from dedicated civil servants, including those who care for our veterans and safeguard our nation, expressing frustration over the email's tone and intent," said union national president Everett B. Kelley.
"Rather than fostering professionalism and respect for their work, this hastily written email left many feeling undervalued and intimidated."
Kelley described Musk as "unelected and unhinged" in the open letter, shared on X.
Federal workers reported receiving this email from the Office of Personnel Management. X/@sentdefender
Musk was swift to hit back at critics on his own platform and said the directive should take less than five minutes.
"To be clear, the bar is very low here," the Tesla and Space X founder said.
"An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable!"
He added in a separate X post: "EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH."
Musk said on X yesterday that federal workers must reply to the email with proof of productivity and "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation".
Trump took to his own platform Truth Social to praise Musk over his attempts to audit the government and encouraged him to "get more aggressive".
"Remember, we have a country to save," Trump wrote.
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Trump last week signed an executive order for agencies to work with the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to "make preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force".
However the legality of whether the US president can fire federal employees remains complex.
President Donald Trump praised Musk's efforts on Truth Social. AP
Most public service employees in the US can only be fired legally for bad performance or misconduct, Reuters reported.
There is also a process and appeal rights if workers are let go.
Trump's Office of Personnel Management also recently sent an email to federal employees with the subject line "Fork in the Road", which offered a deferred resignation.
Over 77,000 workers accepted this offer, which cut the government workforce by around 3 per cent in one fell swoop, the White House said.
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