What would you say you do here

This weekend, on X, Elon posted that all federal employees would receive an email asking them to quantify what they “got done last week,” and ended with a warning that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

Federal employees starting receiving this email on Saturday afternoon.

First of all, we don’t take orders via X.

Second, let’s get practical. There are 2 million federal employees. Elon and his operatives aren’t going to read 2 million emails this week. Let’s assume it takes 2 min to read each email, that’s 66,667 hours of reading!

Third, they lack the background and experience needed to understand the work any of us do. Even if they review a random sample of 1,000 emails, they won’t grasp it or be able to assess whether it’s “efficient.” The indiscriminate, uninformed firings they’ve already carried out are proof of this—they didn’t know what those employees were doing before they let them go and then had to scramble to rehire them.

So what will become of this then?

They have a one-size-fits-all model of how they think things should work, which lacks nuance and depth, and leads them to see things that aren’t there.

They'll probably cherry pick through the emails seeking examples they can wave around to support their claim that government workers are lazy.

They will not make a genuine effort to understand why we do what we do, how we do it, or the impact of not doing it.

Real transparency means real work—where’s yours?

Last week, when Elon held court in the Oval Office, he promised transparency. Great. We believe in transparency, too. So we have to ask, Musk and friends, what did you did this week?

And not the stuff you put on the dodgy, error-filled, unsubstantiated DOGE site. Tell us what you’ve actually been doing.

We agree there are places where actual efficiency improvements would make government more effective. If DOGE were to sit down with federal employees and ask, “Why do you do these things the way you do them?” They'd get a detailed answer that points to regulations and policies the agency is required to follow. Some agencies are stuck in operating models they don’t even like, but find themselves stuck due to regulations passed by Congress, a memo written by OMB, or a stale executive order.

If DOGE were truly committed to improving government, they'd dig into the regulations and policies, helping agencies untangle the bureaucratic knots that hold them back. But that’s not going to happen—because DOGE doesn’t care.

What to do next

If you get one of these emails, follow your agency's guidance on how and if you should reply. And then, spend 5 minutes calling your representatives to demand action: https://5calls.org

Have more to say? Send us your stories at [email protected] (all submissions will be treated as confidential and anonymous).