FCC Employees Coping With Latest Workplace Email, Musk Threat

FCC staff on Saturday received the same email that most federal employees did from the Office of Personnel Management, asking them to justify their work, but it was unclear Monday how or if FCC staff would respond. The FCC didn’t comment Monday. The leaders of unions that represent federal employees slammed the email. President Donald Trump said Monday he supports the effort.

The email instructed federal employees to submit five bullet points detailing what they had accomplished in the last week to both OPM and their manager by 11:59 p.m. ET Monday. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Trump adviser Elon Musk said on X, which he owns. Industry officials said they're now hearing that OPM is telling human relations officers at federal agencies that compliance with the request is voluntary. OPM didn’t comment Monday.

The FTC general counsel has told its workers they should respond, industry officials said. Managers at other agencies, like DOD, which deal with sensitive national security issues, told staff they should withhold any response until they receive further instructions.

“I can't imagine [the email] could ever be used as a basis for adverse action against an employee -- especially when some agency heads are telling their employees not to” answer, emailed Jeffrey Lubbers, an American University administrative law professor. “To me, it seems like part of the ‘show,’ a way to impress the President, and maybe another way to get discouraged employees to quit,” he said.

“Since it's unprecedented, like so many other [Trump] actions, it's hard to gauge its effect,” Lubbers added.

The OPM email “should be called out as completely un-American,” said Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union. NTEU members "are professional civil servants and will not back down to these blatant attempts to attack a vital resource for the American public,” she said in an emailed statement. “NTEU members will not allow themselves to be intimidated or manipulated into throwing away their careers and abandoning their oaths to the Constitution.”

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley sent a letter to OPM acting Director Charles Ezell on Sunday protesting the agency's action. “The email fails to identify any legal authority permitting OPM to demand the requested information,” Kelley's letter said. “OPM’s actions conflict with laws delegating the authority for the management of federal employees to their respective agencies and do not comport with OPM’s own regulations and guidance.” Federal employees “report to their respective agencies through their established chains of command; they do not report to OPM,” it said.

“AFGE strongly believes this email was sent illegitimately and that OPM lacks the authority to direct the assignment of work to agency employees in this manner,” Kelley told union members, advising them to speak with their supervisors. “While a message on X from Elon Musk suggested that failure to respond would be considered a resignation, the OPM email itself does not contain this threat, and there is no known authority for Mr. Musk to make this claim,” he said.

“I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up for work and nobody even knows if they work for the government,” Trump told reporters Monday. What Musk is doing “is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’” Trump said. The president claimed that some workers won’t answer the email because they don’t exist.

Musk is facing pushback, including from some Republicans.

“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he's trying to cut,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Sunday on X, citing the “absurd” email from OPM. “Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform.”

Kristian Stout, director-innovation policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr may welcome FCC employees having to justify themselves. If regulated companies are required to serve the public interest, “the FCC, responsible for stewarding taxpayer dollars, should also serve the public interest by ensuring that every dollar spent internally is also used efficiently,” Stout said. Carr has been “actively trying to streamline FCC operations,” even establishing a dedicated Department of Government Efficiency group within the agency, he said.