US federal staff asked to report last week's work via email by Monday or resign

WASHINGTON -- US federal government employees received an email late Saturday asking them to summarize their work accomplishments from the previous week by Monday night or risk losing their jobs, media reported.

The emails were sent shortly after Elon Musk, who serves as US President Donald Trump's cost-cutting chief, issued a brief notice about the ultimatum on the social media platform X.

"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk said in a post. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

Federal employees -- including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials -- received a three-line email with this instruction: "Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager," the Associated Press reported.

The deadline to reply was listed as 11:59 pm on Monday, although the email did not include Musk's social media threat about those who fail to respond, the news agency added.

Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce, either by being fired or offered a buyout, as the Trump administration works to streamline the government.