The DOGE “What Did You Do Last Week?” Email: Controversy, Reactions, and Implications
On February 22, 2025, an email with the subject line “What did you do last week?” landed in the inboxes of federal employees across the United States.
Sent from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the message demanded that workers provide a five-bullet-point summary of their accomplishments from the previous week by midnight on Monday, February 24, cc’ing their managers.
Musk, the billionaire tapped by President Donald Trump to lead DOGE, amplified the stakes on X, declaring that failure to respond would be treated as a resignation. What followed was a firestorm of confusion, defiance, and debate that has exposed deep tensions within the federal workforce and the broader political landscape.
The Email and Its Immediate Fallout
The email was part of DOGE’s aggressive push to shrink and streamline the federal government, a mission backed by Trump’s administration to eliminate perceived waste and inefficiency.
Musk framed it as a simple “pulse check” to identify productive workers and root out those he suggested might not even exist—echoing unproven claims of “ghost employees” on the government payroll.
By Sunday, Musk boasted on X that many responses had already been received, hinting that respondents could be considered for promotion.
Reports later emerged that DOGE planned to feed these responses into an AI system to evaluate job necessity, though no official confirmation has substantiated this.
However, the directive quickly unraveled.
Multiple federal agencies instructed employees not to reply. This includes the State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department, FBI, and others. They asserted that OPM lacked the authority to demand such information outside their chain of command.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal union, denounced the email as “cruel and disrespectful,” arguing it lacked legal grounding and vowing to fight any resulting terminations.
By Monday, OPM backtracked, informing agency leaders that responses were optional and that individual agencies could decide next steps, contradicting Musk’s resignation threat. President Trump added to the confusion, calling the email “somewhat voluntary” but warning that non-responders could still be fired.
Government Employees Staying Home
Compounding the chaos, many federal employees have not been reporting to work in the wake of DOGE’s sweeping changes.
Trump’s January executive order ending remote work options—requiring full-time office attendance—has clashed with ongoing layoffs, funding pauses, and work stoppages.
A Department of Education employee told Business Insider, “Everything I normally do is on hold because they are reviewing it, so I’m at a total work stoppage.”
Others expressed similar frustrations, with some citing the uncertainty as a reason to stay home or seek other employment.
The National Treasury Employees Union reported that agencies were caught off-guard by the email, leaving workers without clear guidance and fueling a sense of limbo.
This absenteeism has raised alarms about the continuity of essential services. For instance, federal programs have paused hiring seasonal firefighters and halted forest maintenance efforts just weeks after devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), mid-tax season, has laid off thousands of probationary workers, potentially straining its capacity to process returns. Critics argue that DOGE’s “slash-and-burn” approach risks breaking critical systems rather than improving them.
Political Reactions
The email sparked sharp reactions from politicians across the spectrum. Democratic Senator Patty Murray condemned the mass layoffs and the email as “arbitrary” and wasteful, stating, “Two billionaires who have zero concept of what the federal workforce does are breaking the American government—decimating essential services and leaving all of us worse off.”
Senator Chris Van Hollen, also a Democrat, called Musk’s actions “illegal,” urging a shutdown of what he termed an “illegal operation” lacking constitutional authority.
On the Republican side, Senator John Curtis of Utah offered a more measured critique on CBS’s Face the Nation, pleading with Musk to “put a dose of compassion in this,” emphasizing the real human cost: “These are mortgages. It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.”
Meanwhile, Trump has oscillated in his stance, initially praising Musk’s efforts as “a great job” at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 20, then deferring to agency leaders after the backlash, only to later warn non-responders they were “on the bubble” during a Cabinet meeting.
Efficiency of Letting Workers Quit or Be Let Go
DOGE’s broader strategy has included voluntary buyouts and mass firings, with mixed results. In early February, the administration offered federal workers a “deferred resignation” deal—essentially a buyout promising payment through September if they left voluntarily.
The White House reported that 77,000 workers (about 3% of the 2.3 million civilian workforce) accepted, though some estimates suggest up to 200,000 jobs have been cut overall, including 10,000 probationary employees sacked after the buyout deadline.
Agencies like the FDA, CDC, and IRS have seen significant layoffs, with the latter cutting 7,000 compliance workers alone.
Proponents argue this approach has saved billions—DOGE claims $55 billion, though its “Wall of Receipts” only documents $16 billion, including cuts like $6.5 billion from USAID and $502 million from the Department of Education.
Critics, however, question the efficiency. Over 1,000 terminated contracts, including 417 yielding no savings due to prior obligations, suggest a haphazard process.
Charles Tiefer, a government contracting expert, likened it to “confiscating used ammunition after it’s been shot,” arguing it achieves little beyond disruption.
The resignation of 21 DOGE staffers on February 25—engineers and technologists protesting the dismantling of “critical public services”—further underscores the risk of losing expertise, potentially offsetting any short-term gains.
What’s Next
The email controversy is just one chapter in DOGE’s tumultuous rollout. Since Trump’s January inauguration, Musk’s team has infiltrated agencies, accessed sensitive Treasury data (prompting a federal injunction on February 21), and canceled programs like Ebola prevention (later restored after public outcry).
Musk, wearing a “Tech Support” shirt at a recent Cabinet meeting, vowed to cut $1 trillion from the $7 trillion budget, promising more “pulse check” emails to come.
Yet, resistance is mounting. Federal workers are rattled—some are job-hunting, others contemplating resignation, like a Disaster Medical Assistance Team member who told Business Insider, “Maybe I’ll just resign.”
Lawsuits challenging DOGE’s authority and agency pushback signal a rocky road ahead.
As of February 28, 2025, the exact number of email respondents remains unclear, but the episode has cemented DOGE as a lightning rod in Trump’s second term, raising existential questions about the balance between efficiency and functionality in government.
In the end, the “What did you do last week?” email may be remembered less for its answers than for the chaos it unleashed—and the stark divide it revealed between DOGE’s vision and the reality of governing.
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https://www.npr.org/2025/02/25/nx-s1-5308095/doge-staff-resignations-elon-musk
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