Elon Musk, the high-profile billionaire CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, has issued a stark ultimatum to United States federal employees under his oversight to respond to an email justifying their work completed this week or face resignation.

The directive comes as part of Musk’s aggressive push to streamline government operations and reduce spending in his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

The move also comes on the heels of Trump’s decision to fire America’s top general and a series of other senior military figures, signaling a broader push to reshape federal leadership and slash government spending.

Musk, in a post on X said, “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.”

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including judges, court staff, and prison officials, have reportedly received an email from the Office of Personnel Management with the following instruction: “”Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”

They have been given just over 48 hours to detail their accomplishments from the past week.

The deadline to reply was 11:59 p.m. on Monday, though the email did not mention Mr. Musk’s social media warning about those who fail to respond.

McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management, informed the New York Times on Saturday that the agency has requested its employees to submit a concise summary of their achievements from the previous week by the Monday deadline.

She explained that this initiative aligns with the Trump administration’s dedication to fostering an efficient and responsible federal workforce.

Pinover further noted that individual agencies would be responsible for determining any subsequent actions.

The National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, Everett Kelley, described the directive as “cruel” in a statement released on Saturday evening.

“Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people,” he said in an emailed statement. “It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.”

“AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country,” he finished.

Approximately 75,000 federal employees accepted buyout offers ahead of anticipated layoffs, but some have since reported that they never received the promised payments