- Federal employees are now suing to stop Musk's midnight "What did you do last week" email and threat.
- DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management failed to follow protocol, an updated lawsuit says.
- The new lawsuit was filed by unions representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
Federal employees have answered the DOGE inquiry — "What did you do last week?" — with a new, amended lawsuit.
As a midnight ET deadline to respond looms, unions representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers on Monday filed the amended lawsuit in federal court in California.
The lawsuit accuses billionaire Trump advisor Elon Musk of violating the law by demanding, via an email on Saturday titled "What did you do last week," that they justify their jobs or face firing.
The lawsuit names as defendants the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell.
It was first filed Wednesday to challenge what it called the agency's "assembly-line fashion" firing of tens of thousands of probationary employees, meaning those within the first two years of their current federal jobs.
Monday's updated version of the lawsuit adds a dozen paragraphs addressing the "What did you do last week" email.
The email was sent to all federal workers by the OMB on Saturday from a new [email protected] address, and under a "High Importance" designation. It demanded five bullet points listing "what you accomplished last week," and set an 11:59 p.m. ET deadline.
It was not signed by a government official, but it had Elon Musk's blessing, Monday's amended lawsuit said. The billionaire's @elonmusk X account had heralded the email's arrival, the updated lawsuit said.
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk's post said.
Failure to respond by midnight Monday would be considered a resignation, Musk's post said.
The demands and threats made by Musk and the OPM are illegal, just as the mass firing of probationary employees was illegal, lawyers for the AFL-CIO, and for groups supporting national parks and veterans, said in Monday's updated lawsuit.
It alleges that the OPM failed to publish notice of the new directive "in the Federal Register or anywhere else," in violation of federal procedural requirements.
"Subsequent to the OPM email notification on February 22, 2025, at least some federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, began telling their employees not to respond to this OPM surprise request," it said.
The Pentagon told employees to pause any response.
The amended lawsuit seeks an immediate halt to the firings and the "What did you do last week" directive.
A White House representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the updated lawsuit.
