'No one knows who is in charge': White House’s HR email is creating 'bedlam' for federal workers

25 February

Donald Trump with Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson on November 16, 2024 (Wikimedia Commons)

Confusion around President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s layoffs caused chaos for government workers Monday, CNN reported. Over the weekend, workers received an email instructing them to detail what they had done the past week or risk losing their jobs. Some agency officials told workers to disregard the instructions. Trump called the idea “ingenious” and said workers who did not respond would be “sort of semi-fired” or “fired,” but then his administration’s Office of Personnel Management said that workers would actually not be fired for ignoring the email.

“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,”Musk threatened on X over the weekend.

“Our chief said it was mandatory. Then OPM said it became voluntary. Then I guess Trump just told us it was mandatory again,” a worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs told CNN. “No one knows who is in charge and who to listen to.”

“It’s bedlam,” said an employee who works at the IRS.

“Ironically, employees at OPM, the agency that sent the initial email, were left in the dark about how to handle the instructions themselves until about 6 p.m. Monday, when they finally got guidance saying a response was voluntary but strongly encouraged, according to an email obtained by CNN,” Tami Luhby, Rene Marsh, Ella Nilsen and Sunlen Serfaty reported.

Leaders at the Justice Department, State Department, Pentagon, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy all told workers not to respond. The Commerce and Transportation Departments told staff to reply to their email by sending the information to their supervisors. NASA said it will respond for the agency, and workers do not have to respond individually.

Over the weekend, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union for workers at the Federal Aviation Administration, said the move was a “distraction” for employees at a period when air traffic safety is “fragile.”

“Today was crazy. A lot of people were coming in from being off to try to send an email, a silly email that doesn’t even make any sense to us,” said David J. Demas, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3003, which represents prison workers. He had woken up at 3 a.m. Monday to texts and emails.

Then, just before 11 a.m., the DOJ said workers did not need to respond.

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