Trump administration officially ends "5 things" emails for federal employees
Source: CBS News
Updated on: August 5, 2025 / 2:41 PM EDT
Washington — The federal agency that asked government workers to document five things they accomplished over the past week has officially ended the practice, which was initiated by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Scott Kupor, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, said in a statement that the office communicated with human resources leads at federal agencies that it would no longer "manage the five things process nor utilize it internally." "At OPM, we believe that managers are accountable to staying informed about what their team members are working on and have many other existing tools to do so," Kupor said.
In February, federal workers received an email instructing them to document five things they accomplished in the past week, while Musk, who at the time helmed the Department of Government Efficiency, said those who didn't reply would risk losing their jobs. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk wrote in a post on X at the time. He added in a follow-up post that "the bar is very low here," saying it should take less than five minutes to write.
The emails were part of an initiative to cut down the size of the federal civilian workforce. But multiple agencies told workers to ignore the request from the start, and OPM told agency heads to use their discretion when determining how they would handle the directive.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-5-things-emails/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I would think that maybe they really did look for non-responsive email addresses? But I can't imagine anyone actually being tasked with reading them. Perhaps they set up a search algorithm to look for things like: "1) I set up a new DEI program last week! 2) Hired another trans employee! 3)... " Or maybe: "Oh, gosh, you got me. I'm just a lazy gubmint employee." 
===============
