Elon Musk informed federal employees on Saturday that they have to reply to an e-mail by summarizing their accomplishments for the week, repeating a tactic he used to cull the work drive at his social media firm.
“Please reply to this e-mail with approx. 5 bullets of what you achieved this week and cc your supervisor,” stated the message, which was despatched to federal staff on Saturday afternoon and seen by The New York Instances.
Mr. Musk has repeatedly drawn inspiration from his 2022 takeover of X, then referred to as Twitter, as he works to overtake the federal authorities together with his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity. With the assist of the Trump administration, Mr. Musk has ordered layoffs throughout the federal authorities and successfully shuttered a number of businesses.
“Elon is doing an excellent job, however I want to see him be extra aggressive,” Mr. Trump stated in a submit Saturday on Reality Social.
Mr. Musk shortly accepted the problem. “All federal staff will shortly obtain an e-mail requesting to grasp what they obtained achieved final week,” Mr. Musk wrote in a social media submit on Saturday, saying his actions have been “constant” with the president’s calls for. “Failure to reply will likely be taken as a resignation,” he added.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the e-mail to federal employees.
The method echoed one Mr. Musk took with executives and staff at Twitter. In April 2022, Mr. Musk was set to hitch the board on the social media firm, however bickered with Parag Agrawal, its chief government on the time, over his public criticism of the corporate. When Mr. Agrawal requested Mr. Musk to not submit detrimental issues about Twitter, Mr. Musk responded in a textual content, “What did you get achieved this week?” after which informed Mr. Agrawal he would purchase Twitter outright.
The alternate led to Mr. Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the corporate, which he accomplished in October 2022. Mr. Musk claimed he fired Mr. Agrawal instantly, though Mr. Agrawal contested the circumstances of his departure and sued Mr. Musk for withholding severance funds.
Shortly after the acquisition, Mr. Musk informed staff to print out code that they had written lately — an train meant to show how exhausting they labored.
On Saturday, Mr. Musk acknowledged the similarities. “Parag obtained nothing achieved. Parag was fired,” he wrote in an X submit concerning the message he meant to ship to federal employees.
In response to Mr. Musk’s posts, the American Federation of Authorities Staff, the most important federal worker union, stated it could problem any “illegal” terminations.
“As soon as once more, Elon Musk and the Trump administration have proven their utter disdain for federal staff and the essential providers they supply to the American folks,” Everett Kelley, the union’s president, stated in a press release.
“It’s merciless and disrespectful,” he stated, “to a whole bunch of 1000’s of veterans who’re carrying their second uniform within the civil service to be compelled to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has by no means carried out one single hour of sincere public service in his life.”
Nicholas Nehamas, Maggie Haberman, Erica L. Inexperienced, Eileen Sullivan, Margot Sanger-Katz, Edward Wong, Mark Walker, Kennedy Elliott, Lisa Friedman and Matthew Goldstein contributed reporting.
