Many federal employees ordered to submit recent accomplishments for second Musk email

More agencies are requiring their employees to follow an Elon Musk-backed request to submit approximately five things they achieved in the past week based on guidance obtained by Government Executive. 

Late Friday, federal workers received an email from the Office of Personnel Management directing them to provide such information each week by Mondays at 11:59 p.m. ET. A similar email was sent out on Feb. 22, but the HR agency ultimately said compliance was optional. 

After telling employees to disregard the first round, the Defense Department is now mandating its workers to respond to the email. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a Thursday memo that submissions should not include classified or sensitive information and that non-compliance could lead to further review. 

The Health and Human Services Department on Monday morning sent an email saying employees are “expected” to respond and to exclude the names of other HHS workers, to ensure that the information cannot be used to determine what specific scientific research is being undertaken and to assume that malign foreign actors could access the submission. 

About an hour later, HHS distributed an updated email that employees are “required” to respond and scratched the line about malign foreign actors. 

The Homeland Security Department, which instructed workers not to reply to the initial email, took a unique approach this time around, telling employees Saturday to send their responses to a department email address—Accountability@hq.dhs.gov--and cc their direct managers. Per that email, responses would “remain internal to DHS.” 

“As part of our internal accountability and reporting efforts, we are implementing a structure process for employees to submit a brief summary of their key accomplishments from the previous week,”  according to an email viewed by Government Executive. “This exercise aligns with and supplements the intent of the Office of Personnel Management’s recent guidance while remaining internal to DHS, give our national security responsibilities.”

“This process will help sure alignment with agency priorities and support ongoing performance tracking,” read the email, which was signed by Randolph D. “Tex" Alles, deputy undersecretary for management.

Some DHS contractors Government Executive spoke with also received the email, causing confusion.

“How are we supposed to respond to this? We believe this email was meant for federal employees only, but yeah—we’ve got to talk to our people and make sure,” one contractor said. A DHS spokesperson did not respond to request for comment.

OPM told government employees not to send classified or sensitive information. If all of a worker’s activities are classified or sensitive, they should write “All of my activities are sensitive.” 

Musk, a centibillionaire who is leading the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal government, ahead of the first round of emails posted on his social media platform X that not responding would be treated as a resignation. This time around, however, he said the emails are more of a pulse check than a performance review. 

“Are they alive and can they write an email?” Musk said at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, according to an official pool report. 

In a Saturday email, the American Federation of Government Employees told members to seek guidance from their supervisors on whether and how to respond, while acknowledging that the union believes OPM lacks the authority to request such information. AFGE is part of a lawsuit that is seeking to stop such emails and protect employees who don’t respond.