Federal employees are being required to submit weekly reports on their accomplishments or risk losing their jobs, according to a directive backed by President Donald Trump and announced by Elon Musk.

Musk revealed the plan on X, stating that government workers will soon receive an email asking them to explain their productivity. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Musk wrote.

Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.

Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025

This move follows Trump’s executive order aimed at cutting government spending and reducing the federal workforce. The order instructs the Office of Management and Budget to devise a strategy to shrink the number of employees through efficiency measures and attrition.

To be clear, the bar is very low here.

An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable!

Should take less than 5 mins to write. https://t.co/MTL1wyzaxd

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025

Since the directive was issued, various agencies have moved to dismiss probationary employees. The Office of Personnel Management confirmed layoffs across multiple federal departments, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

That would be a very impressive and long list indeed for you!

However, the passing grade is literally just “Can you send an email with words that make any sense at all?”.

It’s a low bar. https://t.co/D3AlfUfdeQ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025

The Pentagon is also making staffing cuts, with plans to remove about 5,400 probationary workers from its civilian workforce. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services has already let go of approximately 3,600 employees.

Videos like this are all over TikTok, am I missing something here with the Elon Musk emails?

I feel like listing 5 things you worked on should be easy? I feel like you should be able to easily do that daily? Some jobs you have to. pic.twitter.com/PW8uomuiC4

— Sarah Sansoni (@sarahsansoni) February 23, 2025

The American Federation of Government Employees has strongly opposed the changes, calling them unfair and vowing to fight what it sees as wrongful dismissals. However, Trump has expressed strong support for Musk’s efforts, urging him to take even bolder action in reducing government waste.