By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Federal employees have been instructed to justify their work over the past week or risk being deemed as having resigned, according to a directive issued by the White House’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The mandate, which demands responses by 11:59 p.m. ET Monday, was reinforced by Elon Musk, head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who stated on X that noncompliance would result in termination.
The move has triggered widespread alarm and resistance within federal agencies. Major unions representing government workers, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), have advised members to proceed with caution or outright refuse to respond. “AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country,” union president Everett Kelley said in a statement.
OPM’s directive followed Trump’s post on Truth Social urging Musk to intensify his efforts to streamline the federal workforce. While the official OPM email did not include Musk’s explicit threat, agencies and unions have reacted with sharp opposition. Kelley formally demanded that OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell rescind the directive, calling for clarity on its legal basis.
Federal agencies quickly responded. The Department of Defense instructed employees to disregard the OPM email, stating that performance reviews remain under its jurisdiction. New FBI Director Kash Patel issued similar guidance to bureau employees. According to multiple reports, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Security Agency (NSA), and the State Department also instructed staff not to comply. Homeland Security employees received a directive from Deputy Under Secretary for Management R.D. “Tex” Alles advising them to ignore Musk’s demand.
Conflicting messages have caused confusion within agencies. Some Department of Homeland Security workers received an earlier email outlining how to respond while safeguarding classified information, but subsequent guidance directed them to disregard the request entirely. Axios obtained examples of sarcastic responses mocking Musk’s directive, including one claiming to have drafted an imaginary “Martian Exclusion Act” and another joking about planning an ICE raid on Mars.
The National Weather Service told staff to coordinate with supervisors regarding the OPM request. An OPM spokesperson said the agency issued the email as a request, with individual agencies determining how to proceed. The White House has not clarified whether employees who do not respond will face immediate dismissal.
Legal action is likely as unions prepare to challenge potential mass firings. Concerns have also emerged over how the government will process potentially millions of email submissions from federal workers.
Conservatives seeking to reduce government operations have long targeted the federal workforce. Data from Pew Research shows that Black Americans represent 18.6% of federal employees compared to 12.8% in the private sector. Historically, the federal government has been a key source of stable employment for Black workers. In 2022, the Government Accountability Office reported that over half of the U.S. Postal Service workforce came from historically disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups, with nearly half being women.
Jarvis DeBerry, MSNBC Opinion Editor, wrote that efforts to diminish the federal workforce disproportionately affect Black employees. “Trump tying the hands of federal workers, essentially criminalizing the work they’ve been doing, or planning to lay them off will have disastrous consequences for Americans throughout the country,” DeBerry stated. “Millions outside the government will soon learn in the worst ways how much they’ve relied on the work federal employees do every day. But the devastation for the workers themselves cannot be forgotten.”
DeBerry said that reducing the federal workforce aligns with Trump’s rollback of civil rights and diversity initiatives. “It’s impossible to separate conservative hostility toward the federal government from conservatives’ history of opposing integration and Black progress,” he wrote. “Trump attacking the federal workforce as he rolls back civil rights edicts and DEI initiatives shows these actions are connected.”
