From the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has targeted the federal workforce, largely through Executive Orders and actions of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established by executive order on Inauguration Day and headed by Elon Musk. The administration has sought to dismantle USAID, an agency Musk called “criminal,” offered “deferred resignation” to federal workers willing to resign and ordered agencies to lay off probationary employees. For Greenbelt, a town inhabited by federal workers since its inception, the impact is profound. Those not terminated or on administrative leave face scrutiny from DOGE, which this week came most notably in an email de-manding to know in five bullet points what they accomplished last week.
Greenbelter “Suzanne” (not her real name) works in the Human Foods Program at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where she’s been a civil servant for almost 15 years. She shared the anxiety and chaos experienced by many federal workers in the wake of firings at their agencies, resignations, funding freezes and most recently the email de-manding to know what they did last week.
What You Accomplished
The email demanding to know what they accomplished last week came at 4:46 p.m. on Saturday, February 22. It was from a mass distribution list and was unsigned but requested details of work done in the last week in five bullet points. It came from what Suzanne described as the “ghost HR email account” – there’s no department with the acronym HR and the FDA has its own human resources department. The email didn’t outline any consequences for failing to respond but both Musk and Trump separately said, on social media and on camera, respectively, that those not complying would be fired or “semi-fired.”
In the wake of the email, Trump posted a meme mocking federal workers. It depicted the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants trying to write five bullets of what he did last week, for which he included: “Cried about Trump. Cried about Elon. Made it into the office for once. Read some emails. Cried about Trump and Elon some more.”
Several agencies reportedly instructed their employees not to respond to the email.
At 5:41 p.m. Saturday Suzanne received an email from her third-in-line supervisor telling everyone to build a list but not reply.
At 7:11 p.m. that same supervisor emailed again emphasizing that they should not yet reply.
At 10:43 a.m. on Sunday The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), her umbrella department, said the email was legitimate and to respond per its instructions. That email was unsigned.
At 5:22 p.m. Sunday HHS said it was working with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and to pause activity on answering the email.
“We do not know who is asking us to submit this information,” stressed Suzanne. All of her computer awareness training would suggest it’s a phishing attempt, she said. Her work is between her and her direct supervisor, she said. She’s not sure the public understands how unprecedented the request is.
Complicating matters, Suzanne’s direct supervisor is currently on leave and the Deputy Commissioner for the Human Foods Program resigned after what they believe are illegal firings of their probationary workers. She says other employees weren’t told of the Deputy Commissioner’s resignation, instead receiving an email about the Acting Deputy Com-missioner replacing the person they weren’t told resigned. She says the resignation letter is unavailable but she’s seen excerpts and considers it scathing.
It’s really unprecedented, says Suzanne. At worst there are some bumps when a new administration takes over, but “this is a full blockage,” she said.
“I don’t know if people are aware how abnormal it is that funding is still frozen for all intents and purposes,” she told the News Review. She is a government credit card holder and hers was turned off on January 24. Since cards have been turned off, Suzanne, who works in a lab, says they can’t replace the consumables they use. As they run out of things they are emailing others in the building asking, “Do you have any X, Y, or Z?” She’s been investigating imported clams and shellfish and they can no longer purchase the food that needs to be tested for safety. “That’s just one example,” said Suzanne.
“It feels like they’re trying to force us into not being able to work so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said.
On Monday at 4:54 p.m. an announcement was sent to all HHS employees. OPM had rescinded the mandatory requirement to respond to the “What did you do last week?” email. There’s “no expectation” for HHS employees to respond, it stated, and “no impact on your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond.” The message then shared guidance for responses if employees chose to send any. The guidance included using a “high level of generality,” not identifying others, not naming drugs, devices and so forth, responding by the deadline and copying their supervisor. Suzanne doesn’t know who this guidance email came from but she noticed that its advice about responding came in the form of five bullet points. The final guidance bullet stated: “Assume what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.”
