Some Government Employees Are Instructed — Again — To Not Respond To 5 Things Email As Musk Doubles Down

The State Department has again instructed its employees to not respond to Elon Musk’s emails asking them to justify their work, as the tech billionaire and close ally of President Donald Trump redoubles his efforts to remake the federal government.

Employees across the federal government received the second of Musk’s "what did you do last week?" emails — which tells employees to explain in bullet points what they did last week — in inboxes late Friday. Some employees received the email from the Office of Personnel Management, POLITICO previously reported, while others received it directly from within their agency.

The first iteration of the email kicked off a firestorm last weekend, particularly among employees in agencies that handled sensitive or classified work. Several departments told employees to not respond — guidance that the State Department reiterated early Saturday following the second email.

“You may have received another email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) asking for five points about your work,” an email from State Department official Tibor Nagy sent Saturday morning read. “As a reminder, Department leadership will continue to respond on the behalf of our workforce and employees until otherwise rescinded.”

Even so, Musk has doubled down on the requirement that all federal employees respond — or risk their jobs.

“The President has made it clear that this is mandatory for the executive branch,” Musk wrote on X on Saturday. “Anyone working on classified or other sensitive matters is still required to respond if they receive the email, but can simply reply that their work is sensitive.”

It's not clear how other agencies that handle sensitive materials will respond to the latest email. Other agencies like the Department of Justice and the FBI, which handle matters that can require security clearances, also directed their employees not to respond to the first OPM missive earlier this week. A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The confusion underlines a chaotic week in the federal government after the surprise request from Musk last Saturday for federal workers to justify their jobs to the Department of Government Efficiency. In the first email’s wake, agencies were torn on how to respond — with several Trump loyalists instructing employees to ignore the request. The second email clarified for employees not to include classified information in their responses.

Musk threatened that a lack of response to the first email would be “taken as a resignation.” OPM’s privacy rules had previously issued assurances that responding would be “explicitly voluntary.” These privacy rules changed Friday, with OPM now writing that employees that the consequences “will vary depending on the particular email at issue.”

It’s likely this second email from OPM is only the beginning. The email instructs employees “going forward” to report their activities weekly on Mondays. The emails — which Musk described as a “pulse check” on employees — are part of a larger effort by Musk and DOGE to overhaul the federal government.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.