Summary
Elon Musk admitted that his mass email to federal employees demanding weekly accomplishment reports sent to him or risk termination was a test to gauge responsiveness.
Musk tried to frame the move as a “pulse check” on bureaucrats.
The email caused confusion, with some agency leaders advising staff to ignore it, while others initially instructed compliance before reversing course.
A rift emerged as top officials at the FBI, Pentagon, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Energy openly defied Musk’s directive, highlighting tensions within the administration.
Is it even remotely legal to say “innocuous ordinary action like missing an email will be interpreted as a resignation”?
Imagine a manager starting a meeting with “we need to cut some staff, so blinking will be interpreted as a resignation”
Stunts like this are going to cause everyone to join a union just so they can make their rep deal with this sort of bullshit instead.