Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) didn’t hold back in criticizing Elon Musk after he sent an “absurd weekend email” to federal workers, demanding they justify their jobs by sending a list of their accomplishments over the past week. The email, sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), warned employees that failure to respond by Monday would be considered a resignation.
Murkowski wasted no time calling out the billionaire tech mogul. On X, she blasted Musk, saying, “Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
The senator also criticized Musk’s push to slash federal spending through his Department of Government Efficiency. She fired back, “If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut.”
The email has sparked outrage across the federal government, with multiple agencies—including the Pentagon, FBI, and State Department—telling their employees not to respond. These agencies made it clear that they would handle the correspondence with OPM, not Musk’s department.
Union leaders representing federal employees have also come out swinging. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), condemned the email in a letter to OPM’s acting director and Musk. Kelley called it “irresponsible” and accused Musk of trying to confuse and intimidate workers. He demanded that OPM withdraw the email and apologize.
Musk, however, defended the email, claiming it was intended to root out “outright fraud” from employees not doing enough work. He even praised the workers who responded well. But the damage has been done—federal agencies are in open defiance, and unions are mobilizing their members to push back against Musk’s heavy-handed tactics.
Musk’s move comes as part of his broader push to reduce federal spending, but the response from federal workers and their unions is clear: they won’t be bullied into justifying their existence. Musk’s attempt to micromanage their work has hit a wall of resistance, and it’s unlikely to go unnoticed.
