Musk's new ultimatum spurs fresh confusion among US government workers

By Alexandra Alper, Nathan Layne, Tim Reid and Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal workers faced fresh uncertainty about their futures on Tuesday after Elon Musk gave them "another chance" to respond to his ultimatum that they justify their jobs or risk termination, contradicting guidance from some Trump administration officials that the request was voluntary.

The confusing back-and-forth has rippled through the federal bureaucracy, with some agencies instructing workers to comply and others not. It has become a test of how much power Musk wields over the government's operations as he pursues an unprecedented cost-cutting campaign with President Donald Trump's backing.

Twenty-one workers resigned from his so-called Department of Government Efficiency in protest on Tuesday, saying they refused to aid the downsizing effort.

"We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services," the employees wrote in a resignation posted online.

DOGE did not respond to a request for comment on the resignations.

The workers, who include data scientists, product managers and the division head of IT, were employed in an office known as the United States Digital Service before Musk took it over and renamed it DOGE after a favorite cryptocurrency.

The resignations added to the drama surrounding Musk's email demand, which was sent to employees across the government asking them to summarize their accomplishments of the past week by Monday. In a post on X, the social media site Musk owns, he asserted that failure to respond would constitute resignation.

With the deadline approaching on Monday, the Office of Personnel Management, the government's human resources arm, told workers they could ignore the email.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla <TSLA.O> and rocket company SpaceX, was undeterred.

"Subject to the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination," he wrote on X late on Monday without setting a new deadline.

Prior to the new OPM guidance, Trump said workers who did not respond would be "sort of semi-fired," adding to the uncertainty.

Asked on Tuesday whether the renewed threat would be carried out against non-compliant employees, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would defer to cabinet secretaries' guidance for their individual workforces.

'WORKING AS ONE TEAM'

The head-spinning developments exposed new fissures within Trump's administration over Musk's blunt-force approach. Even some Trump loyalists, such as Kash Patel, the newly installed FBI chief, told employees to hold off on replying.

Leavitt rejected any suggestion of rifts within the administration, saying everyone was "working as one team."

Musk will attend Trump's cabinet meeting on Wednesday, she said.

Employees at several agencies said they received conflicting guidance from leadership, leaving them unsure how to proceed.

The Department of Health and Human Services advised employees that if they chose to reply, they should refrain from mentioning specific drugs or contracts, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.

"Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly," the email said.

The acting director of OPM itself sent an email to the agency's staff that said responding was voluntary "but strongly encouraged."

The Trump administration plans this week to gut a unit within OPM charged with keeping track of all federal government human resource transactions including hiring, promotions, retirements and separations, two people familiar with the matter said. The unit will be slashed from 64 people to just under a dozen, the people said.

OPM did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk's downsizing initiative has laid off more than 20,000 workers, with another 75,000 accepting buyouts, and the effort continued to accelerate on Tuesday.

There are about 2.3 million civilian federal employees.

The vast majority of fired workers were in their jobs for less than a year, making them easier to lay off under civil service rules. But OPM has begun firing career workers within its own agency in what sources told Reuters is intended to serve as a template for a second round of mass layoffs across the government.

To that end, IRS executives have been told to brace for another round of job cuts beyond the nearly 12,000 IRS employees already slated to be terminated, two people familiar with the matter said, referring to the roughly 7,000 probationary employees set to be fired and 5,000 employees taking a buyout. The cuts so far amount to more than 10% of the IRS workforce.

Gavin Kliger, the 25-year-old software engineer dispatched by Musk to scrutinize IRS operations, has told executives he believes the agency can meet its mission with far fewer employees, the sources said.

The Interior Department on Tuesday received a directive from OPM saying that bureaus such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs should prepare plans for reductions in their workforce ranging from 10% to 40%, an Interior source told Reuters.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Alexandra Alper, Andy Sullivan, Tim Reid, Nathan Layne and Richard Cowan in Washington; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Writing by Joseph Ax and James Oliphant; Editing by Ross Colvin, Nick Zieminski, Nia Williams and Leslie Adler)