NASA employees have been told they are not required to respond to a Trump administration email request to list their recent workplace achievements.
NASA employees, along with other federal workers, received an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Feb. 22 titled “What did you do last week?” that asked them to provide a bulleted list of five examples of what they accomplished last week within a deadline of Feb. 24, 11:59 p.m. EST. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, acting under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, posted on social media platform X ahead of the email, claiming that failure to respond would be considered a resignation. The move is reported to have caused concern and confusion across the federal workforce.
On Feb. 24, a NASA spokesperson issued a statement stating that the agency is “not requiring any individual employee to respond” to the email. The OPM email itself is reported to not have included a threat of termination. The statement also said “NASA leadership is responding to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) request on behalf of the agency workforce.”
A memo sent from acting NASA administrator Janet Petro to agency employees obtained by Space.com states that employees may still respond but are not required to do so.
“You are not required to respond, and there is no impact to your employment if you choose not to respond,” Petro wrote in the memo. “NASA will send an agency response. Employees should continue to feel empowered to report their activities and accomplishments through normal agency supervisory and performance channels as part of NASA’s regular course of business,” she added.
Some NASA departments, like the Science Mission Directorate, initially encouraged responses to highlight accomplishments ahead of major mission launches, according to SpaceNews. Other parts of NASA advised employees to hold off until official agency guidance was issued.
Key agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Justice, and the FBI, have instructed employees to ignore the directive, the BBC reported.
Further confusion was sown after Musk later posted on X claiming that that federal employees will be given another chance to respond, with failure to result in termination.
The development follows a week after more than 1,000 NASA employees were saved from dismissal at the eleventh hour from Trump administration moves to downsize the federal workforce. Cuts to NASA’s workforce could still follow at a later date.
Musk, the founder of SpaceX and close Trump adviser, also last week called for the International Space Station (ISS) to be deorbited as soon as 2027, ahead of a plan to deorbit in 2030 backed by ISS partners.
NASA postponed two planned media briefings scheduled for Feb. 24 on the upcoming ISS Expedition 73, according to SpaceNews.
