What’s so wrong with Elon Musk’s e-mail asking bureaucrats to sum up their work?

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Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.

If you’ve ever had a job, you would probably agree that being asked to share your accomplishments with the head of an organization is a good thing.

For most honourable, self-respecting, hard-working people, such a request offers them visibility and recognition at the highest levels and, perhaps, career advancement. At the very least, it offers the opportunity for a conscientious worker to take some pride in showcasing a job well done to the big boss.

And if you are doing a good job, no matter how small, what’s the big deal? You should welcome the accountability and have nothing to fear by responding to the request.

That is, unless you are working for the massive U.S. federal government bureaucracy and the request is from your big boss, Elon Musk, de facto head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

The weekend before last, Mr. Musk, who is U.S. President Donald Trump’s attack dog on government waste and fraud, directed the Office of Personnel Management to send an e-mail with the subject line “What did you do last week?” to two million federal employees asking them to itemize five accomplishments in the previous week. He set a deadline of 11:59 p.m. last Monday for them to respond or else. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” the e-mail said.

Last Monday, Mr. Musk doubled down on his hard-line, posting on X: “Those who do not take this e-mail seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere. Lots of people are in for a rude awakening and a strong dose of reality.”

Mr. Musk’s tone may have been terse, but the ask seemed simple enough. What did you accomplish at work last week? Five things. Bullet points. That’s easy. Ten minutes, 20 max. Hit send.

But in Washington, accountability is a four-letter word. There was a hue and cry from the bureaucracy. While Mr. Musk said he received lots of positive responses, many who got the e-mail were so offended they were either unwilling – or perhaps unable – to find five things they did at work the previous week. A slew of resignations has followed, even though the Trump administration later said responding was voluntary and compliance would be left to the leadership of various agencies.

The American Federation of Government Employees union said the e-mail left people “feeling undervalued and intimidated” and suggested the move was “plainly unlawful,” questioning whether Mr. Musk – a political appointee, not an elected official – had the authority to make it.

Ask any number of lawyers and they will tell you that if your case is weak, look for a technicality – a lapse in the evidence-gathering process, a unique wrinkle in the applicable law – anything that might provide a way to win with a losing hand.

Just because the bureaucrats don’t like Mr. Musk’s methods doesn’t mean he lacks the authority to do it. He does, according to Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and constitutional expert, who has scolded doubters and averred that the U.S. Constitution gives the President the executive chops to empower someone like Mr. Musk to do such a job.

Mr. Musk is not alone in putting teeth in his edicts. Kelly Loeffler, the new head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, arrived at the agency’s offices two weeks ago to find a sea of empty cubicles – only about 10 per cent of staff were at work. Ms. Loeffler immediately mandated that every employee would report to the office last Monday or face termination.

While the outrage among bureaucrats is clearly pushback against Mr. Trump’s war on big government, in a way it makes his point. If employees can’t or won’t tell their boss what they did at work last week, there’s a problem, and maybe they can’t justify the paycheques they get from U.S. taxpayers.

The real question amid the chaos is this: Why shouldn’t government workers be held accountable – and face consequences – in the same way as their private-sector counterparts? Americans are tired of the waste, abuse and fraud in big government – and the costs that go with it. Any self-respecting corporate board would demand the same of its executive management.

“The government is inefficient, not very competent, and needs a lot of work,” Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, told CNBC last week. “It’s not just waste and fraud, it’s outcomes.”

Agree with his methods or not, Mr. Musk’s simple e-mail has put government workers on notice that they will be held to standards of productivity, performance and transparency that are common in the corporate world but typically alien in government. Those who don’t measure up will be smoked out – and that’s a good thing.