Federal workers are left in the floating when the clock goes to Musk’s e -mail period

Cnn
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On Monday, the federal employees spent it to find out how -or even whether they should react to Elon Musend -e -Mail explosion, to promptly explain their work last week or to lose their job.

A day of confusing and often contradictory guidance ultimately left many federal employees unclear how to deal with Musk’s request. Some were instructed to meet others, others were not pointed out, and others were also waiting for instructions from the leader of their agency until late a day.

On Monday afternoon from Oval Office, President Donald Trump spoke of Musk’s email “ingeniously” and said that everyone who did not answer was “half-fired or fired”.

Then, a few hours later, Trump’s own administration contradicted him directly when the office of personnel management formally informed the agencies that the reaction was voluntary and that no non -response would not be “equated”.

While some agencies sent this message to the employees in their instructions, not everyone did it and many federal workers left in the dark just a few hours before Musk’s period on Monday 11:59 p.m.

“Our boss said it was mandatory. Then OPM said it had become voluntary. Then I said Trump just told us that it was mandatory again, ”said a career employee from the Ministry of Veteran affairs. “Nobody knows who is responsible and who to listen to.”

“It is bedlam,” added an IRS employee.

CNN spoke to federal agents in several agencies on Monday. All of them have asked for one not to use their names for fear of retribution.

Some of the best-known federal authorities had the claims of the Ministry of Justice, the Foreign Ministry, the Pentagon, the FBI, the Ministry of Homeland Protection and the Energy Ministry that they should not answer the employees on the email.

While the commercial and transport departments on Monday show their employees, Commerce asked the employees to send the information to their superiors.

Among the transport providers who have to answer are the chronically understaffed workforce of the air traffic controls of the Federal Aviation Administration. Many controllers work in 10-hour shifts on mandatory overtime in six days.

On Saturday, her union, the National Air Verkehrs Controllers Association, condemned Mousk’s move as a “distraction” towards controllers at a time when the air security system is “fragile”.

NASA, on the other hand, said she would answer on behalf of the agency and added that the employees are not obliged to answer the E -Mail from OPM and that their employment is not affected if they do not decide not to answer .

Ironically, employees of OPM, the agency who sent the first e -mail, remained received by CNN.

The chaos did not start long after a mass -ee -e -mail from OPM had ended up in the inlot entrances of federal workers across the country. The work was disturbed in some agencies when employees and civil servants sat and tried to decrypt a variety of e -mails at hastily gathered meetings. Agency heads discussed how to react to Musk’s demands, several sources said CNN.

David J. Demas, President of the American Federation of Government, Local 3003, who represents 320 employees of the Bundesburos for Prisons, said he received 30 calls from his members on Monday.

Some workers wanted to know whether they had to go to prison to answer because they have no access to their work on their phones or home computers. And those who worked asked what they should include in their five ball points.

“Today was crazy. Many people came away to try to send an e -mail, a silly e -mail that makes no sense for us “e -mails from concerned members.

Shortly before 11 a.m. Monday, the Ministry of Justice sent an e -mail to the workers who said that they did not have to answer, to which demas then passed on to his colleagues.

In another state institution, the officials have set up a room to enable employees without computer access – including caretakers – to send their achievements during the previous week, a federal worker CNN said.

At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a worker told CNN that they “did not fulfill my actual tasks due to the e -mail and had to answer those below me and try to clarify me”.

As with several other agencies, the instructions of NOAA supervisors and leaders shifted with the latest instructions from a high -ranking official of the Ministry of Commerce. (Noaa is part of trade.)

Another employee of the veteran department told CNN that on Monday they would have to take part in several sessions via the guideline that affect their work.

“This has been taken at any time of patient care,” said the employee, whose leadership recommended to respond to the employees from Opm. “It’s completely annoying.”

In the Department of Health and Human Services, a spacious federal authority with thousands of employees, the employees should not be descriptive if they were answered by Musk -E email and should keep answers as general as possible .

“Assuming what you write is read by malignant foreign actors and adapted your answer accordingly,” says an HHS -E mail received by CNN.

Some federal workers have at least chosen a more sarcastic approach to each other.

At the IRS, a group of colleagues had activities that they carried out last week as a fake answer to Musks e -Mail. The list contained “fighting against the BS that they started, the employees stopped from beating their managers, keeping their equipment in a working state without being thrown against the damn wall. They helped the employees to understand that this was the decision of the new administration and not the administration of the new administration. “And” try to minimize the fear, confusion and anger that you cause for no reason … during the tax season! ”

Video screens in the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, DC, played a false video from Trump on Monday, the Musk’s toes kissed, with the words “Long Live the Real King”. It was later removed and replaced by information that “presented the victories of the Trump administration,” said the agency in a statement.

At the Environmental Protection Agency, in which the employees meet Musk’s demand without revealing certain sensitive information, some employees are bursting with the mixed message.

“Nobody has a spine,” said an EPA worker. “Because the EPA is a goal, they try to play well with them and think that they could not be exposed to deeper cuts. If you appease a bully, give them the license to get more. ”

An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that people are confused.

“On the one hand, the employees want to present the important work they do”, but there are concerns about “answering individual e -mail accounts and not knowing where the information is going,” said the official. “I suspect that all federal employees are conflict and deeply worried everywhere of the derogatory story of our government.”

In his Oval Office note on Monday, Trump suggested that employees who did not answer may not work at all.

“We have to find out where these people are. Who are you? “Said Trump in the Oval Office when he met with French President Emmanuel Macron.” And we said: “If you don’t answer, let’s assume that you are not nearby, and you will no longer paid. ”

However, musk was undeterred.

On Monday evening he posted X: “Subject to the president’s discretion, you will give you another chance. The failure to react a second time leads to a termination. ”

Jennifer Hansler, Jackie Wattles, Hadas Gold, Michael Williams and Pete Muntean, CNNS Jennifer Hansler, contributed to this report.