Updated: Feb. 25 at 1:34 p.m. ET
Leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told employees the mandatory requirement to respond to an unusual email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which asks each worker in the government to name five productive tasks from the past week, is now rescinded.
Participation is voluntary and "there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond," an email shared with Fierce Healthcare shows.
The message to employees outlined a set of guidelines workers should follow if they choose to respond to OPM. They asked workers to respond at a "high level of generality" to protect sensitive personally identifiable information, as well as information about the department.
Perhaps most alarmingly, workers were told to "assume what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly." Employees are supposed to copy supervisors onto the email and not name any drugs, devices, biologics, therapeutics, scientific experiments, reviews or research.
"Collecting more than 10 million potentially sensitive data points through notoriously insecure means like email, to create a repository that did not exist 48 hours ago, is a security nightmare," said Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, a senior technologist for the nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology, in a statement.
The mixed messages and instructions to only include high-level information has only added to the dysfunction.
"I'm talking to all my coworkers and everyone is scared," said one current employee. "They don't know what to do."
Federal workers remained in the dark as to how they should respond to the OPM email for most of the workday, despite expecting to receive more guidance at noon today. Prior to this, HHS leadership had told workers to "pause" any responses and not yet send a response to OPM.
But OPM later informed human resource leaders at each agency that responses are voluntary, The Hill and other media outlets reported. The OPM email was directed by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk. He pushed for employees to comply with the demand throughout the day on X.
In a recording and emails obtained by Fierce Healthcare, supervisors tried to step in to guide frantic employees when political leadership was nowhere to be found. Although they were uncertain of the best advice to give, they suggested workers try to match their responses with keywords from job descriptions or to connect achievements back to a job title's legal requirements to meet the needs of an artificial intelligence system.
The administration will use an AI large language model to sort through vast collection of emails it receives, NBC reported. There were more than three million federal government employees as of November 2024, says Pew Research.
President Trump weighed in on the topic during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron Feb. 24.
"I thought it was great because we have people that don't show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government." he said. "By asking the question, 'tell us what you did this week,' what's he doing is asking 'are you actually working?' And then, if you don't answer, you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist."
Trump did not provide any evidence for this claim, but he said the idea by DOGE leader Elon Musk is "genius." He noted that departments handling confidential data may not want to send that information over an email.
Employees have until Feb. 24 at midnight to respond to the OPM, the department responsible for sending the ‘fork in the road’ buyout offers to workers.
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” OPM said Saturday in an email obtained by Fierce Healthcare and other media outlets. “Please do not send any classified information, links or attachments.”
“Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere,” Musk added on X on Monday.
Musk is already facing a federal lawsuit in California from workers and unions in connection to the email, the Associated Press first reported. It adds to the tally of lawsuits the billionaire faces from his leadership role as part of the Department of Government Efficiency since joining the administration.
“No OPM rule, regulation, policy, or program has ever, in United States history, purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to OPM,” said the complaint.
Across the federal government, workers at various departments have received mixed feedback on how to comply, or not, to the unusual email. Musk has made no secret of wanting to downsize the workforce by firings or resignations, but unions and various political appointees do not view the request as legitimate.
At first, political appointees at HHS instructed its workforce to treat the “legitimate email” seriously, sources told Fierce Healthcare. But just hours later, the agency said it is working with OPM to ensure sensitive information is not relayed in these messages, according to copies of an internal email that have since been posted online.
It’s been an emotionally draining month for federal workers who remain employed. They have navigated past the deferred resignation program and evaded termination—unlike most probationary workers—but many said they are expecting more firings to take place.
Their union leaders are trying to weigh in and offer support, but they too are offering mixed guidance. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) “strongly advised” its members to not respond to the email, saying the workers are employed by HHS, not OPM.
But later that night, the NTEU, which represents workers outside of HHS as well, said to listen to department heads. By the end of the day Monday, the union declared a "significant victory" because of HHS' decision to not enforce the OPM email.
"We understand the anxiety and disruption this situation has caused, and we are pleased to deliver this positive update," it said an email to members. "NETU will continue to aggressively advocate for your rights and protect you from unnecessary intrusions into your work life."
Some federal agencies, like the FBI, State Department and Homeland Security, also told employees to not comply with the email, per reports.
Today is also the first day some federal workers are required to return to the office. Musk and the new administration say the new policy is important for efficiency, while workers claim the shift is half-baked and designed to demoralize.
“Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Musk said on X. “Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”
This is a developing story.