Musk orders US federal workers to submit weekly report on work or get fired

Elon Musk, the billionaire advisor to President Donald Trump, has said that all federal employees must submit an accounting of their work week or else lose their jobs, hours after the president pushed for "more aggressive" moves to slash government spending and waste.

"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," said a post on X from Musk on Saturday, whom Trump tapped to head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

His X post did not elaborate on what was required in the work accounting nor what the deadline would be.

Earlier Saturday, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Musk was "doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive."

"Remember, we have a country to save," the Republican leader added.

Trump has put the tech entrepreneur in charge of DOGE, tasking him with slashing public spending and tackling waste and alleged corruption.

Surge of firings

The first wave of job cuts has targeted workers who are easier to fire, such as "probationary" employees on the job for less than two years or those who have started new roles within an agency.

The indiscriminate firings have led to DOGE terminating people whose jobs are not funded by taxpayers and have begun to anger people across the country who are concerned about a loss of services as well as the impact of federal job losses on local economies.

In the latest cuts announced on Friday, the US Defense Department is to reduce its civilian workforce by at least five percent starting next week.

Trump's administration has already begun firing many other federal workers who are on probationary status.

DOGE is a free-ranging entity run by Musk, though its cost-cutting spree has been met with pushback on several fronts and mixed court rulings.

A judge on Thursday denied a union bid to temporarily halt the firing of thousands of people.

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Source: TRT