You cannot run a government like a business. When Elon Musk and President Donald Trump announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year, it arrived with the fanfare and braggadocio characteristic of both men.
The billionaire tech mogul promised to slash $2 trillion in federal spending, streamline bureaucracy, and shake up what he viewed as a complacent government workforce. Now, as Musk’s limited time as a special government employee approaches its end, DOGE appears to be leaving with a whimper rather than a bang.
The “Five Things” Emails That Went Nowhere
Perhaps no single initiative better exemplifies DOGE’s trajectory than the infamous “What did you do last week?” email. On a Saturday afternoon in February, federal employees across the nation received a directive requiring them to submit five bullet points detailing their weekly accomplishments.
The message came with an ominous warning: failure to comply would be considered a resignation.
The email sparked immediate concern and confusion throughout the federal workforce. Many employees worried about potential privacy violations and the very real threat of losing their jobs. What wasn’t immediately clear was that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had already undermined the initiative just days after its rollout.
According to records obtained by The Washington Post, OPM officials informed human resources officers across government agencies that the initiative was actually voluntary and that noncompliance would not be considered a resignation. Even more revealing, OPM acknowledged it had no plans for what to do with any responses they received.
“Zero idea how it’s used,” one Securities and Exchange Commission employee told The Post.
What has emerged in the months since is a mishmash of approaches across federal agencies. Some departments have formally declared the emails optional or unnecessary.
The Environmental Protection Agency told employees in March that the task would be “encouraged, but optional,” while the National Institutes of Health announced this month that the mandate had ended entirely.
Other agencies, however, maintain stricter requirements. At the Defense Department, the single email request has ballooned into a weekly ritual of multiple messages passed up and down the chain of command. Every Thursday or Friday, staff receive reminders to submit their bullet points by Tuesday, with supervisors copied. These responses are then summarized at each management level and passed upward.
Nonetheless, many employees have resorted to creative forms of compliance—or outright resistance.
- Some submit slightly modified versions of the same boilerplate text each week.
- Others have begun responding in Russian to confuse reviewers.
- At least one Housing and Urban Development employee uses ChatGPT to generate “10 to 20 pages of word salad” weekly.
- A Food and Drug Administration worker sends the same vague but accurate five points each time to avoid revealing confidential information.
Musk’s MO is ‘Overpromise but Underdeliver’
This email saga is a perfect mirror of DOGE’s overall trajectory. Musk’s original pledge to cut $2 trillion in federal spending has been repeatedly revised downward—first to $1 trillion and now to just $150 billion. Critics point out that even the cuts that have been implemented have failed to make any meaningful impact on the federal deficit.
The department’s “move fast and break things” approach has created numerous legal challenges, while its leadership structure remained opaque for weeks after its creation.
As Elon Musk prepares to depart DOGE (his special government employee status is expected to expire at the end of May), those close to him suggest he’s grown weary of criticism from political opponents. He reportedly believes that DOGE’s work will continue through team members embedded across federal agencies.
“No one can say DOGE has not achieved a historic amount of success. The results speak for themselves,” a senior White House official told The Post.
Meanwhile, Musk’s attention may be drawn back to his private-sector ventures. Tesla faces what some analysts describe as a “code red” moment, with slumping sales and delayed production of cheaper models. The company’s stock has shown troubling indicators ahead of an earnings call, and even bullish investors have begun sounding alarms.
