The deadline imposed by Elon Musk for government workers to respond to a mass email about productivity has passed, leaving a trail of confusion and chaos in its wake. The email, sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), demanded that all federal employees respond by the end of February 24th with "5 bullets of what you accomplished last week," with Musk stating on X that "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation." However, the email itself did not include this crucial detail.

The response from government agencies has been far from uniform, with some ordering compliance, others calling the email optional, and some telling employees to disregard the message altogether. The Department of Justice, Administrative Office of the US Courts, and State Department have all instructed staff to follow internal review processes instead, according to multiple news outlets. On the other hand, the Treasury Department appears to have ordered Internal Revenue Service employees to comply.

Other agencies have issued more ambiguous guidance. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, for instance, told staff that responses were "voluntary" but added that he had personally responded and "strongly encouraged" others to do so. The lack of clarity has led to widespread confusion among government workers, with many unsure of how to proceed.

The White House has done little to clarify the situation, with an unnamed administration official saying that employees should defer to their agencies' guidance. An OPM official further added that the office was "unsure what to do with the emails" and had "no plans" to analyze them. However, other anonymous officials claimed that workers' reports would be "fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether those jobs are necessary or not."

President Donald Trump weighed in on the issue, saying that people who failed to respond would be "sort of semi-fired," and adding that "a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist." He denied that agencies were clashing with Musk by issuing conflicting guidance, saying it was "done in a friendly manner."

Musk's email has drawn comparisons to his behavior after taking over Twitter, where he demanded employees perform tasks such as printing out 50 pages of their recent coding work or writing a memo justifying their jobs to receive previously promised company stock. However, unlike at Twitter, where he held sole control, he's dealing with formal chains of command and many other stakeholders in the government.

The whole situation has been criticized for creating fear and uncertainty among government workers, with some arguing that it's a ploy to paralyze the government and create an excuse to fire people at will. The email has also drawn an immediate challenge in court, with groups including the American Federation of Government Employees condemning the email as "thoughtless and bullying … meant to intimidate federal employees and cause mass confusion."

The irony of the situation is not lost, given that Musk and Trump claim to be fighting bureaucratic confusion. Instead, they have created one of the most Kafkaesque scenarios imaginable, where a government order presents a drastic ultimatum that is never mentioned in the order, in which a response may be either mandatory or forbidden, and failing to respond may or may not get you simultaneously fired and not fired. As one commentator noted, "you may not actually exist."

The fallout from this debacle remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the government's handling of Musk's email has been a mess, and it's the workers who are paying the price.