Doge To Federal Employees It Instructed To Stop Working: Show Us What You Worked On Or Be Fired

After being plagued for years by civil investigative demands and lawsuits from the Department of Justice (DOJ), the real estate industry hoped for looser antitrust enforcement under a second Trump administration. Although enforcement experts were initially skeptical, the latest action taken by the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency may be just what the real estate industry was hoping for. 

On Saturday, the federal government’s human resources office gave all federal employees two days to provide five bullet points of what they accomplished last week, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

This will be particularly difficult for federal workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who have been instructed not to work on supervisory and enforcement work or litigation. Only a small number of workers at the watchdog are even permitted at the moment.

In response to Musk’s threat of firings if workers did not comply, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, said it would challenge any “unlawful” terminations.

Five people at the DOJ, who spoke with Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity, have told their teams not to detail any of the work they are doing until they receive further clarity. 

According to those with knowledge of the situation, at least two U.S. attorneys offices messaged workers that the support office for all 93 U.S. attorneys was trying to gather guidance from DOJ leadership about how to comply with the order. 

Sources told Bloomberg that DOJ attorneys are concerned that disclosing private investigation details, including evidence before a grand jury, would amount to attorney misconduct.

In a post on X, Musk wrote that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

In a communication shared with Bloomberg on Saturday, the Office of Personnel Management advised government workers not to send “classified information, links, or attachments.”

The DOJ currently had CIDs out with several local and state Realtor associations over the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) no-commingling rule. Additionally, the department is known to be looking into NAR’s hotly contested Clear Cooperation Policy, as well as buyer representation agreements, and cooperative compensation practices, which some listing agents still utilize. 

If the DOJ’s staff is cut as a result of the DOGE order, this would mean there are fewer staffers available to pursue some of these investigations into the real estate industry, relaxing antitrust enforcement, which is exactly what many in the industry were hoping for.