On Saturday, employees throughout the federal government received an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), demanding a reply with “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.” On X, Elon Musk posted that failure to respond “will be taken as a resignation.” The result? Confusion, chaos, and resentment among a federal workforce that increasingly feels under attack. “So fucking dumb,” says one air traffic controller who received the email and was granted anonymity for fear of retribution. Leaders of many agencies appear to have been caught off guard. At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which houses the National Weather Service, some managers initially cautioned against replying to the email in case it was a phishing attempt. Another NOAA employee says they were cautioned not to log onto their work email after receiving it. Other workers were met with conflicting guidance from their managers. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is anticipating deep cuts orchestrated by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), some employees reported being told …