The Trump administration has decided to discontinue a requirement for federal employees to summarize their weekly achievements in five bullet points, a practice initiated by former advisor Elon Musk.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) began gradually phasing out this practice across various agencies since February and officially scrapped it on Tuesday.
“We’ve informed agency HR Reed that OPM will no longer oversee or employ this five-point reporting internally. We believe managers will have sufficient insights into their team members’ work through existing tools,” stated OPM Director Scott Kupor.
As reported by Reuters, this decision marks a step back from some of the previous initiatives associated with Musk during the Trump administration.
After stepping down from his role in May, Tesla’s CEO found himself embroiled in a public dispute with President Trump regarding legislation that aimed to enhance governmental infrastructure.
The introduction of the five-bullet-point requirement triggered considerable confusion within the agencies, with some managers insisting they didn’t need to respond and others believing it was necessary.
Musk had claimed that failing to reply to the emails would be interpreted as quitting, which understandably raised concerns. He suggested that tracking employee accomplishments could help identify “complete fraud” within the system.
Subsequently, OPM clarified to agency heads that a lack of response to these emails would not equate to a resignation and encouraged staff to view it as a voluntary request.
In March, the agency discreetly modified its privacy impact assessment concerning these email initiatives, removing any mention of mandatory staff responses.
This year, the president defended the email directive, asserting its value: “There were many geniuses involved in sending it.” He further explained, “We’re trying to determine if people are actually working, so we’re reaching out to them. We ask them to tell us what they accomplished last week. If there are no replies, it raises questions about whether those individuals are engaged or even working.”
