WASHINGTON: Elon Musk, the billionaire advisor to Donald Trump, mentioned on Saturday (Feb 22) that each one US federal staff should justify their work or lose their jobs, hours after the president pushed him to be “more aggressive” in slashing authorities spending.
Musk – the world’s richest particular person and Trump’s greatest donor – has led the trouble to fireside swathes of the federal government workforce.
“All federal staff will shortly obtain an e-mail requesting to grasp what they received completed final week. Failure to reply might be taken as a resignation,” Musk wrote.
In response to a duplicate of the e-mail offered to AFP, federal staff have been requested to submit “approx 5 bullets of what you achieved final week”.
The e-mail, with the topic line “What did you do final week?”, got here from the US Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM). The deadline to answer was 11.59 pm on Monday, although the message didn’t say failure to take action would result in termination.
The OPM didn’t instantly reply to AFP’s request for touch upon Saturday night.
The American Federation of Authorities Staff (AFGE), the biggest federal worker union, vowed to problem any illegal terminations in an announcement from nationwide president Everett Kelley.
Kelley slammed Musk and the Trump administration, saying the transfer confirmed “their utter disdain for federal staff and the crucial providers they supply to the American folks”.
“It’s merciless and disrespectful to a whole bunch of hundreds of veterans who’re sporting their second uniform within the civil service to be compelled to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has by no means carried out one single hour of sincere public service in his life,” he mentioned.
A number of federal staff instructed AFP they have been suggested by their companies not to answer the e-mail and await additional instruction, a advice echoed by the Nationwide Treasury Staff Union.
