Employment lawyer reveals three major problems with Elon Musk's email to all federal workers with ultimatum

Staffers on the taxpayers wage bill were sent an ultimatum by Elon Musk and his new government department over the weekend, and while thousands worry for their jobs, an employment lawyer has weighed into problem.

Taking to Twitter on Saturday (February 22), the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) issued an email to all federal workers asking for them to list five things they did last week or face the axe.

When thousands of staffers didn't comply, including FBI agents with the agency urging their workers to ignore the email, the Tesla CEO fumed at their alleged 'incompetence' before setting another ultimatum.

"Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination," Musk tweeted.

But should federal workers be worried? Well, according to R. Scott Oswald, managing principal of The Employment Law Group, there are three major problems with the tech-mogul's demands.

"So, everything about this reeks of an extra legal effort here to please the president," Oswald explained.

"There are a number of different problems with the email itself. The primary problem with it is that it's coming from the Office of Personnel Management rather than the individual supervisory chain.

Responding to this email would take less than 2 minutes for any truly productive person.

Why is this in any way controversial? pic.twitter.com/vm1Yig5bRi

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) February 22, 2025

"So generally, federal government employees, like all employees, are required to follow instructions that their supervisors give, so long as those instructions are lawful and unequivocal, but they must come from somebody in the supervisory chain.

"And so the first problem is that this email is coming from someone who is not in any employee supervisory chain, unless we're talking about people at the Office of Personnel Management."

So, for those employees that may have missed the deadline for whatever reason, your job could actually still be protected.

Oswald continued: "The second problem with the email is that it likely is going to elicit information from at least some employees that is unlawful."

He went on to explain that many employees have agreements in place with their employer, wherein they commit to keep certain information confidential.

Included in these roles are law enforcement officials, as well as other types of positions like lawyers, doctors, and nurses.

"So the instruction likely would require individuals to disclose information that would violate their covenants that they've made, separate, but usually to a security office or to another chain of command."

While the final issue relates to differing advice employees will have heard from whichever agency they work for.

"The last problem with it is that we've got agencies that are giving conflicting advice. Some are saying you should respond, others are saying you shouldn't respond, so we don't have an unequivocal instruction."

If you're a federal worker, hopefully this will help you sleep better!