The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently issued new guidance regarding how federal employees should respond to the 'What did you do last week' email. The guidance, released late Monday night, has caused confusion among employees as it did not specify responses as voluntary and hinted at potential penalties for non-compliance.
Following a statement by Elon Musk on X, indicating that federal employees would have another opportunity to reply to the email, with termination being a consequence for failure to respond a second time, OPM's new guidance took a different approach.
The updated guidance, obtained from sources, refrained from labeling responses as voluntary and did not explicitly mention termination as a consequence. Instead, it left the decision on potential actions to individual agencies, stating that 'it is agency leadership’s decision as to what actions are taken' if employees fail to respond.
Furthermore, the new guidance advised agencies to assess responses and non-responses, taking into account factors such as employee leave status on February 24, 2025, and access to email on that date. Reports indicated that some government facilities were making efforts to provide computer access to employees who lacked it.
In a shift from the original email instruction, the OPM memo directed federal employees to send their responses to agency leadership and copy OPM, diverging from the initial directive to respond to OPM and copy managers.
Despite the updated guidance, confusion persists among employees, as several defense officials noted. The memo appears to acknowledge agency directors' assertions of autonomy in hiring and firing decisions, a sentiment echoed by FBI Director Kash Patel in a memo to FBI employees, urging them to disregard the OPM request.
