Good day all. Last week, Elon Musk sent out an email to all government workers through the Office of Personnel Management, basically the government HR department, to respond to the email with five things they’ve accomplished in the past week. This set off the government workers. They were furious that they had to report what they had been doing.
There was an immediate push back and flat out refusal to comply. Finally, President Trump stepped in and told everyone that they had to comply or be fired. Here are those details from Newsmax:
President Donald Trump warned federal employees that if they don’t respond to an email saying what they do for work, they will be fired.
An email was sent out by the Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech mogul Elon Musk, asking federal employees to list five things they have accomplished in the past week, though many department heads told employees not to answer it.
I think that those department heads are now getting a firm talking to about who is actually in charge of the executive branch of the United States Government. Here’s a hint. It’s not them.
“We have people who don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government, so by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what [Elon’s] doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?'” Trump said while sitting with French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron. “If you don’t answer … you’re fired.”
Trump said people are not answering because they don’t even exist.
Part of the reasoning for this instruction is to find out who is actually working and just how many of the no responses are some sort of no-show job. In other words, someone is getting a paycheck for a job that really doesn’t exist. For a definition of what a no-show job is, here is what Grok has to say:
A “no-show job” refers to a position where someone is paid a salary or wage but isn’t required to actually show up or perform any meaningful work. It’s often associated with corruption, nepotism, or political favoritism, where the job is essentially a way to funnel money to someone without them earning it through effort. Think of it like a ghost employee—on the payroll, but nowhere to be seen. The term pops up in discussions about government scandals or shady business practices pretty often.
Because of the push back, and the possibility that some people didn’t get the email, a second notice. However the OPM decided that they too, has forgotten who is actually in charge. Here are those details from Newsmax:
Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk reaffirmed Monday that federal employees who fail to respond to an email detailing their weekly accomplishments could face termination despite conflicting guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, The Hill reported.
I think that the Office of Personnel Management is going to be put under a very powerful microscope in the next few weeks. First was the message from the Department of Government Efficiency that was sent out.
“Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” Musk wrote on X, doubling down on an initial directive requiring employees to submit five completed tasks from the prior week. The mandate, issued Saturday, set a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday for responses, initially stating that noncompliance would be considered resignation.
I will say that summarily firing people who don’t respond might be a bit much. Maybe. There would be legitimate reasons that a person didn’t respond. They were out of the office, so to speak. (Most of these drones haven’t been in an office in 4 years, but that’s another issue) They might have been on vacation and didn’t see the email. There is also the possibility that they get literally hundreds of emails a day and just haven’t seen it yet. It could even have ended up in the spam folder.
However, OPM pushed back against the directive, notifying agency leaders Monday afternoon that employee participation was not mandatory.
I suspect, as I mentioned earlier, that someone is going to be getting a visit from the White House for some “Counseling” on who actually is running things.
“OPM also clarified that a non-response to the email does not equate to a resignation,” read an agency email obtained by The Hill.
As I said, it’s possible that people just didn’t get the email. However, with all the publicity about the message, it’s unlikely that government employees weren’t aware of it.
The directive, reportedly sent at Musk’s behest, ignited a dispute between agency leaders and the billionaire as federal departments scrambled to address confusion. Several agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, advised employees not to respond to the email.
FBI Director Kash Patel instructed staff Saturday to “pause any responses,” noting that the agency would coordinate replies if necessary. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of our review processes and will conduct reviews,” Patel said in a staff message.
Now in this case, I would agree. There are certain classes of government workers who are very busy during the week and who do generate reports regarding that they are doing. Law Enforcement is one of those areas. Sometimes, the people can’t access their email. They might be working undercover. I suspect that Elon Musk wasn’t thinking about those types of government employees. This is one of the problems with the “Shotgun” approach. Still, there are hundreds of thousands of others that really do need to justify their positions.
President Donald Trump, however, defended Musk’s directive.
“There was a lot of genius in sending it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people, ‘Please tell us what you did last week.’ If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working.”
One of the reasons for the “Return to the office” mandate was to see just who actually showed up. There are indications that a large percentage of government workers, “Working from home,” aren’t actually doing anything or are only putting in a couple of hours a day, or a week.
The debate over Musk’s authority to enforce such directives has drawn legal scrutiny.
“The president ultimately has to decide this. He’s the head of the executive branch,” Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax’s “The Record With Greta Van Susteren” Monday.
“And if he has a conflict between Elon Musk, who is not technically employed by the government, and the head of the FBI, who obviously is technically employed by the government, the head of the executive [branch] has to make the decision.”
He isn’t wrong, however, President Trump does appear to be backing Elon Musk in this. Granted, there may need to be some adjustments made. I remember when the Greatest President of the 21st Century fired all the striking Air Traffic Controllers, some of them were brought back. Why? Because they weren’t “On strike,” (Which was illegal and still is), they were legitimately off the job, either on a scheduled vacation or due to medical reasons. (Such as a broken leg)
How the White House will enforce Musk’s directive remains unclear as agencies continue to push back against the mandate.
I suspect this will be resolved in a cabinet meeting. However, the government workers do not get any sympathy from me or, frankly, most of the people working in the “Dreaded Private Sector.” I’ve had to fill out these reports myself in some of my “Real World Jobs.” In most cases, it was a waste of time since the manager in question was a micromanaging moron. Still I did comply since I could have been fired if I didn’t.
The problem we have is that the United States Government is not just bloated, it’s out of control. We have a massive bureaucracy that thinks of itself as the “4th branch of government, and the superior branch of government.” They have been running roughshod over the American people for decades and now we’re beginning to find out just how bad things actually are. I have little doubt that the requirement will be upheld by President Trump with some modifications. After that for those who continue to refuse?
And if you are interested in what I did last week?
- Read news for blog material
- Wrote a number of blog posts
- Looked for images suitable for memes
- “Acquired” new memes
- Generated memes using Grok
- Posted new blog entries
Thatisall
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~The Angry Webmaster~
I will note that, during my recent VAMC stay, while the floor nurses did not appear to need to make any documentation – their notes fulfilled the need – at least one nursing educator and one pharmacist both commented that they were now keeping logs of teaching contacts with either nurses or patients or both.