A wave of confusion swept across the federal workforce on Monday as employees scrambled to decipher an unexpected directive from Elon Musk, demanding that they account for their work in the past week or risk losing their jobs. The email blast, which landed in inboxes over the weekend, set off a flurry of conflicting instructions from various agencies, leading to uncertainty, frustration, and—according to some workers—complete chaos.
The situation was made even murkier by President Donald Trump’s remarks from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, in which he called Musk’s move “ingenious” and stated that anyone failing to respond was “semi-fired or fired.” However, just hours later, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) appeared to contradict Trump directly, informing federal agencies that the email was voluntary and that noncompliance would “not equate to a resignation.”
As the day wore on, many agencies struggled to determine the appropriate course of action. Some directed their employees to comply, while others explicitly instructed them to ignore Musk’s demand. At the Department of Veterans Affairs, a career employee described the situation as an ongoing cycle of mixed messages: “Our chief said it was mandatory. Then OPM said it became voluntary. Then I guess Trump just told us it was mandatory again.” An IRS worker was even more blunt: “It’s bedlam.”
For employees in some of the country’s most high-profile agencies, the directive was clear—don’t respond. The Justice Department, State Department, Pentagon, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Energy all advised their workers to disregard the email. However, at the Commerce and Transportation Departments, officials took a different stance, instructing employees to provide the requested information—though in Commerce’s case, it was to be sent to supervisors rather than Musk himself.
The impact of this directive was particularly disruptive in critical sectors such as air traffic control. Federal Aviation Administration controllers, already dealing with staffing shortages and working mandatory overtime, suddenly found themselves caught in a bureaucratic whirlwind. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association swiftly condemned the directive as a “distraction” at a time when the air safety system was already under strain.
NASA, meanwhile, chose a different approach, announcing that it would respond to Musk’s inquiry on behalf of the agency. Employees were reassured that their individual participation was not required and that their jobs would not be at risk for failing to respond.
Ironically, even the Office of Personnel Management—the very agency that sent out the mass email—was left without clear guidance for most of the day. Only around 6 p.m. did its employees receive an official directive, confirming that responses were voluntary but “strongly encouraged,” according to an internal email obtained by CNN.
The sheer level of confusion was on full display at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, where union president David J. Demas fielded a barrage of phone calls from concerned employees at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Pennsylvania. Some, who were off duty, worried they needed to physically return to work to send an email, while others questioned what to include in their five bullet points explaining their weekly tasks.
“Today was crazy,” Demas admitted. “A lot of people were coming in from being off to try to send an email—a silly email that doesn’t even make any sense to us.” By 11 a.m., the Department of Justice had provided much-needed clarity, informing its employees that no response was required—a message that Demas quickly relayed to his members.