Updated March 01, 2025 at 08:01 AM ET
Federal employees have received a second email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management asking them what they did last week even as those demands are currently facing legal scrutiny.
Late Friday night, federal employees received a second email asking them to share five bullet points on their accomplishments last week. It's the latest in an effort led by Trump advisor Elon Musk, who has said his goal is to monitor productivity, while searching for fake government employees for which he has presented no evidence.
Employees were also told that going forward, they were expected to submit similar lists by end of the day every Monday.
Multiple government sources, including from the Department of the Interior and the Department of Treasury, shared a copy of the email with NPR on condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation by the Trump administration.
Like the first email asking employees what they did last week, the email came from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In a privacy assessment first published Feb. 5 in response to a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's implementation of the email system, OPM had said responding to any mass email was "explicitly voluntary."
But on Friday OPM updated its privacy assessment to say that federal employees could decline to respond, but that "the consequences for failure to provide the requested information will vary depending on the particular email at issue."
As part of a lawsuit that also challenges the Trump administration's mass firing of probationary employees, a coalition of labor unions and civic organizations allege that the first "What did you do last week?" email, sent last weekend, violates federal law.
The complaint contends that the email constitutes a rule, and that the Office of Personnel Management failed to comply with rulemaking procedures, including providing a notice and comment period as required under the Administrative Procedure Act.
At a hearing in federal court on Thursday, the plaintiffs did not argue this particular claim, as the focus of the hearing was on the firing of probationary employees.
However, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that the Office of Personnel Management had likely violated the same federal law by failing to comply with notice and comment rulemaking in issuing memos ordering agencies to fire probationary employees.
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