Federal workers left in limbo as clock ticks down to Musk’s email deadline

CNN — Federal workers spent Monday trying to figure out how – or even whether – to respond to Elon Musk’s weekend email blast telling them to explain their work last week or risk losing their job. Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump called Musk’s email demand “ingenious” and said that anyone who didn’t respond is “semi-fired or fired.” Then, a couple of hours later, Trump’s own administration directly contradicted him, when the Office of Personnel Management formally notified agencies that response was voluntary and that any failure to respond would “not equate to a resignation.” While some agencies conveyed that message in their guidance to employees, not all did, leaving many federal workers in the dark just hours before Musk’s deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday. At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one worker told CNN they “haven’t done any of my actual duties due to the email and having to respond to those below me and trying to get clarification from those above me.” Like at multiple other agencies, the guidance from NOAA supervisors and leaders shifted with the latest instructions coming from a high-ranking official at the Department of Commerce, who said staffers should provide the five bullet points on their work activities to their supervisors by the deadline. “It’s totally disruptive.” At the Department of Health and Human Services, a sprawling federal agency with thousands of workers, employees were told that if they were going to respond to the Musk email, they should refrain from being descriptive and keep answers as general as possible. The list included “fought the BS you started, kept the employees from beating up their managers, kept your equipment in a working condition without it being thrown against the damn wall, helped the employees understand that this was the new administration’s decision and not management,” and “trying to minimize the fear, confusion and anger you cause for NO REASON…DURING TAX SEASON!” Video screens at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, DC, on Monday played a fake video of Trump kissing Musk’s toes, featuring the words “Long Live The Real King.” It was later removed and replaced with information “showcasing the wins of the Trump administration,” the agency said in a statement.