Trump administration introduces new reports for federal employees - CNN

According to sources in the union and several employees, emails titled "What Did You Do Last Week? Part II" were sent to, among others, staff at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the General Services Administration, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, as well as the Departments of Education and Veterans Affairs.

Employees were once again asked to respond to the emails, which in almost all cases came from a new email address of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), listing five of their accomplishments and sending copies to their supervisors. However, this time, they were informed that it would become a weekly requirement to be completed every Monday by 11:59 PM Eastern European Time.

Confusing emails

Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US also received a directive on Friday, February 28. However, two emails sent to CDC staff, reviewed by CNN, were sent from a distribution list of the National Institutes of Health, and it was unclear whether the responses would be directed to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

A similar mass email was sent without prior notice last Saturday to over 2 million federal employees. This followed a post on social media platform X by Elon Musk, who announced that employees would be required to report what they had done at work over the past week, warning, "Failure to respond will be seen as resignation." The deadline for responses was set for 11:59 PM Eastern European Time on the previous Monday.

This email request, originating from OPM but without the threat of termination, caused widespread confusion and concern among employees and agencies.

Several agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy, instructed their employees not to respond. Other agencies told their employees that responses were voluntary, while a third group demanded compliance.

Just hours before the deadline, OPM issued guidance stating that responding to the email was voluntary.

Requirements at the US Department of Defense

On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegset ordered all civilian employees at the Pentagon to respond to a similar email they would receive on Monday, requesting them to list five accomplishments from the previous week. This was confirmed by a copy of a memo signed by Hegset, which was obtained by CNN. The memo noted that this directive differed from previous agency instructions that had suspended responses to the first email.

Civilian employees received a separate instruction, stating that the email would come from the Pentagon, and that their responses would remain within the Department of Defense, rather than being sent to the Office of Personnel Management.

Ministry of Homeland Security

According to a CNN source, employees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received the "What Did You Do Last Week? Part II" email on Friday evening. On Saturday, the department's leadership sent an email to staff, stating that the department was compiling its own list of accomplishments.

"As part of our internal accountability and reporting efforts, we are implementing a structured process for employees to submit a brief summary of their key accomplishments from the previous week. This exercise aligns with and supplements the intent of the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) recent guidance while remaining internal to DHS, given our national security responsibilities," the department's email stated.

The Department of Homeland Security gave its employees until 11:59 PM Monday Eastern European Time to send a list summarizing their weekly accomplishments to the department’s internal email address.

'Pulse check' and 'soap bubble'

According to the White House, one million federal employees responded to the first email. Explaining the parameters of the directive, press secretary Carolina Levitt said, "The agency heads will determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies."

Speaking on Wednesday, February 26, at the first Cabinet meeting of Trump's second term, Elon Musk stated that the email was not a job evaluation, but rather a pulse check.

"We think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead. Which is probably why they can’t respond. And some people who are not real people, like they’re literally fictional individuals that are collecting pay checks. So we’re literally trying to figure out, are these people real, are they alive and can they write an email?," he said.

However, Trump quickly interrupted him, stating that federal employees who did not respond to the email were in a bubble and at risk of being fired.

"Those million people that haven’t responded to Elon, they are on the bubble. Maybe they’re going to be gone, maybe they’re not around, maybe they have other jobs, maybe they moved, and they’re not where they’re supposed to be," the president added.

Personnel reform of the Trump administration

Since the end of January, the administration of President Donald Trump established the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and appointed billionaire Elon Musk as its head. Trump tasked him with reducing the civil service workforce, which totals 2.2 million employees.

Musk’s aides blocked federal employees' access to computer systems containing critical databases.

Additionally, President Trump urged most federal employees to immediately resign and receive their salaries until September 2025. The majority of employees boycotted this request.

Furthermore, Trump initiated the return of government employees working remotely to their office jobs.