The Trump administration has ditched an Elon Musk–mandated program requiring federal employees to share five workplace accomplishments every week, according to a new memo.
When the billionaire was at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency before his relationship with President Donald Trump imploded in early June, his short-lived initiative prompted widespread outrage among employees and management at federal agencies.
Federal workers were ordered to email the Office of Personnel Management as part of a drive to drastically cut staff numbers. Workers who did not comply were threatened with termination.
Now the federal human resources agency has informed workers that they no longer need to comply, Reuters first reported.
“At OPM, we believe that managers are accountable to staying informed about what their team members are working on and have many other existing tools to do so,” the agency’s director Scott Kupor said in a statement, according to the outlet.
Kupor, who took up the role at the agency in July, reportedly added that the agency would no longer be using the process internally, after he described it as “not efficient” and “very manual.”
It was “something that we should look at and see, like, are we getting the value out of it that at least the people who put it in place thought they were,” he said last month.
The move is an indicator that the Trump administration is looking to leave the Musk–DOGE era in the past, as the tech mogul has proved increasingly unpopular following his time in government.
Musk’s email ultimatum went down like a lead balloon with other department heads, including FBI director Kash Patel, who sent his own email to employees to clarify where the bureau stood.
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote, according to an NBC report at the time. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
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The State Department and the Justice Department also told staff to hold off on responding to Musk’s ultimatum when the email landed in inboxes earlier this year.
After backlash, Musk said the emails were a way of checking if employees “had a pulse.”
“This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email,” Musk said. “This mess will get sorted out this week. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will.”
The Musk–Trump bromance came to an explosive end after the Tesla CEO’s time as a special government employee expired at the end of May. After staging a bizarre farewell press conference in the Oval Office, Musk began to publicly lash out at Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Trump said that Musk was “wearing thin” as the men traded blows on their respective social media platforms. Their feud culminated in Musk posting, without evidence: “Time to drop the really big bomb. @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” He later deleted the post.
