OPM says that Musk’s ultimatum is voluntary after a weekend of confusion

After a weekend of confusion, the Trump administration said federal agencies they did not have to order workers on Monday afternoon to comply with Elon Musk information on their activities at work , and that this is voluntary, according to two sources familiar with the case.

The Personnel Management Office – indeed the Federal Government Human Resources Agency – updated human resources agents on a Monday call on Elon Musk’s call to the Trump administration to dismiss workers Federals who did not respond to an email asking them to submit an email listing their achievements of the previous week.

Adding to the confusion, Trump’s own comments on Monday, there was “a lot of genius” behind Musk’s proposal on Musk on Musk’s proposal on Musk’s proposal on Musk’s proposal on Musk on Music. “If they didn’t answer.

The OPM did not respond to a request for comments on the instructions given to the federal agencies.

In the latest efforts of the Government Ministry of Effectiveness to investigate efficiency and reduce government size, employees were questioned in an email of the staff management office on Saturday to indicate five achievements during The previous week and answer before 11:59 p.m. and Monday.

Musk has threatened on social networks that employees will face termination if they do not comply. The original email sent to employees did not include such an ultimatum, leaving certain employees ignoring the threat.

However, some federal agencies have told employees not to respond to OPM email, some have indicated that employees should answer and others said that the response was “voluntary”, creating uncertainty between The ranks.

Musk’s ultimatum has raised questions about the amount of authority he has in government. While the White House argued in a deposited court that Musk has no real power, Musk doubled his ultimatum on Monday morning, warning that “those who do not take this email seriously will soon make their careers elsewhere”.

Trump approved the email while answering questions on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I thought it was great because we have people who do not present themselves to work, and no one even knows if they work for the government,” said Trump. “So, by asking the question:” Tell us what you did this week, “what it does, that is to say” do you really work? “”

“And then if you do not answer as if you were somehow semi-fusion or you are fired because many people do not answer because they don’t even exist,” said Trump.

Questioned later Monday about the change of OPM policy, an official of the White House said: “DOGE moves quickly, in the direction of Potus, and that is exactly the point.”

“It’s all about efficiency, even internally,” added the manager.

In a statement, the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said: “Everyone works together as a unified team in the direction of President Trump. On the contrary, any notion is completely false. “”

Mixed messages

Federal employees began on Saturday receiving the OPM email with the object line “what did you do last week” which demanded that they list “5 bullets of what you did the Last week and CC your manager “, according to several sources and an email examined by ABC Nouvelles.

The object line came from the musk game book: “What have you done this week?” is the same message he sent to the CEO of Twitter (now X) Parag Agrawal before Musk buy the company and dismissed the CEO.

A spokesperson for the staff management office said on Saturday that “agencies would determine all the next steps”.

However, the management of several agencies told their staff that they expected new advice and, in some cases, told them to tackle the response, according to several sources.

Employees of the Ministry of Justice were informed that they did not need to meet the request of the OPM, according to an e-mail obtained by ABC News. The Ministry of Defense told employees who had received the email to “take an unanswered break.” The Pentagon official fulfilling the first personnel agent of the department said that the DOD would examine any performance of the staff according to its own procedures, but added that “when and if necessary”, he would coordinate the responses to the emails of the ‘OPM.

The director of the newly confirmed FBI, Kash Patel, also told staff “please suspend any response” to email.

Agency employees such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Energy have been informed by the senior executives they expected to New advice and, in some cases, says to wait for notice before responding.

The interim administrator of NASA, Janet Petro, informed the employees on Monday before the directives of the OPM were published only the response to the e-mail was optional and that not to answer would have “no impact On your job “, according to an email obtained by ABC News.

“Employees may have already replied or can still choose to answer. You are not obliged to answer, and there is no impact on your job with the agency if you choose not to answer,” writes Petro in the email.

Other agencies have ordered employees to respond. Addressing Fox News on Monday morning, transport secretary, Sean Duffy, explained why his employees should respond to Musk emails.

“If you can’t find five things you have done, you might not be used here,” said Duffy, calling it an “easy task” that “occurs in the private sector all the time. “”

The leadership of the Treasury Department sent an e -mail to the agency scale on Monday morning by asking all employees – including those of IRS – to comply with OPM emails by date Limit, according to an email obtained by ABC News.

However, the email has left some confused employees again, in particular because it does not clarify whether non-compliance with the deadline could result in dismissal.

Federal workers who do not follow Musk on social networks could ignore that there is an ultimatum on the table. Although the administration has asked federal employees to list their achievements, the email has not declared that those who have not responded to the deadline would be dismissed.

Employees of all agencies told ABC News that they had not seen the threats of Musk before their guest at their reaction.

An IRS employee told ABC News when they asked their direct managers if they did not respond to their dismissal, they were told: “We must only respect official emails and ignore all directives not communicated through official channels. “

Another IRS management employee said that the staff are “filled”.

The managers of the veterans department told employees to respond to email. An agency manager told ABC News that workers are “afraid”.

“It’s not an exaggeration,” they said. “Everyone is afraid of losing their job daily. There is this fear that you were going to open your email and you will be dismissed.”

What is the amount of musk authority?

It is not clear if Musk has the power to dismiss employees in this way. However, he continues to act as if he was doing, threatening the employees on Monday morning with administrative leave if they do not return to work this week.

Lawyers of the White House attested to the Federal Court that Musk “has no real or official authority to make government decisions”.

Trump aid also publicly said that Musk was advisable as an employee of the special government.

While Trump said that Musk can do nothing without his approval, the president publicly announced Musk as the Doge manager and praised him for the work he does as such. On Saturday, shortly before the OPM email was extinguished, Trump posted on his social platform Truth, “Elon does a great job, but I would like to see him become more aggressive”.

-Abc News’ Devin Dwyer, Peter Charalambous, Selina Wang, Emily Chang and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.