Federal Workers Get 2nd Round of ‘Pulse Check’ Emails Requesting List of Accomplishments

Roughly 1 million of the 2.3 million federal workers responded to the first email.

Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk joins President Donald Trump during the signing of an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 11, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Federal workers have received a second round of what Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk has described as “pulse check” emails, asking employees to list five things that they accomplished in the prior week.

A government source shared a copy of the email with The Epoch Times; unlike the first round of similar messages, the email indicates that employees are now expected to engage in this type of reporting on a weekly basis.

“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets describing what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Going forward, please complete the above task each week by Mondays at 11:59pmET,” reads the email, sent on the evening of Feb. 28.

This email also stated: “Please do not send links, attachments, or any classified/sensitive information. If all of your activities are classified or sensitive, please write ‘All of my activities are sensitive.’”

It’s unclear if all agencies received the exact same email.

Roughly 1 million of the 2.3 million federal workers responded to the first email. The email, accompanied by a social media message from Musk indicating that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” drew controversy.

However, the first email did not include the threat of termination if no response is given, with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) later notifying federal agencies that employees’ response to the email was voluntary and not doing so “will not be considered a resignation.”

Asked about the first email, Musk clarified that it was sent after President Donald Trump instructed him in his role at DOGE to get “more aggressive” with identifying potentially wasteful or fraudulent federal spending as part of Trump’s vision for a leaner government with fewer workers.

“I think that email was perhaps interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse?” Musk said during a Feb. 27 Cabinet meeting at the White House. “And if you have a pulse and two neurons, you could reply to an email.”

Trump has pledged to overhaul the federal workforce, noting in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington on Feb. 22 that he wants to enforce stricter workplace attendance, eliminate remote work privileges, and expose government employees engaged in outside employment.

“How many jobs have you had? Who paid you while you were working for the government and all?” Trump asked, saying that his administration is demanding to see information on whether federal employees are working second jobs, with the “pulse check” email potentially aligned with that effort—or with the broader thrust to overhaul the federal bureaucracy.

“We want to make government smaller, more efficient. We want to keep the best people, and we’re not going to keep the worst people,” Trump said at the time.

Meanwhile, OPM updated its privacy assessment on Feb. 28 to indicate that federal employees can decline to respond to the “pulse check” emails, but that “the consequences for failure to provide the requested information will vary depending on the particular email at issue.” This suggests that the administration may seek to hold workers accountable for non-responses.

Trump created DOGE to streamline government operations and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending. The agency has an 18-month mandate with a target of slashing $2 trillion in federal spending before its scheduled dissolution on Independence Day 2026.