Elon Musk criticized former X CEO Parag Agrawal, noting his lack of productivity before Agrawal was fired in 2022. Musk, now leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Trump, demanded federal employees justify their work or risk losing their jobs. He echoed a previous conversation with Agrawal by instructing employees to detail their recent accomplishments, recalling Agrawal’s struggles to improve Twitter. Emails requesting this information were sent across various federal agencies, raising concerns about the legal implications of terminating employees who do not respond, especially those dealing with confidential tasks amid ongoing court orders.
San Francisco, US:
On Saturday (local time), Elon Musk directed criticism towards Parag Agrawal, the former CEO of X, who was dismissed in 2022 when Musk took control of the platform. This remark came as Musk, recently appointed by US President Donald Trump to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), urged federal employees to account for their work over the past week or face termination.
Responding to a post on X that stated, “Almost three years ago Elon Musk asked Parag Agrawal what he got done last week. Now he’s asking every federal worker the same question,” the Tesla CEO commented, “Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired.”
Parag got nothing done.
Parag was fired. https://t.co/69Je8rpYoM
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
Elon Musk-Parag Agrawal Fallout
Since Musk’s directive to federal employees, social media users have been sharing memes and screenshots of a prior conversation between Agrawal and Musk before the latter acquired the microblogging service in 2022.
In that exchange, Agrawal stated: “You are free to tweet- is Twitter dying? or anything else about Twitter- but it’s my responsibility to tell you that it’s not helping me make Twitter better in the current context. Next time we speak, I’d like to provide you with perspective on the level of internal distraction and how it is hurting our ability to do work. I hope the AMA will help people get to know you, to understand why you believe in Twitter, and to trust you- and I’d like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and don’t get distracted, but we aren’t there right now”.
Musk responded by asking, “What did you get done this week?”
The public exchange, which was perceived as a significant conflict between the two, ultimately resulted in Musk’s decision to terminate Agrawal from X.
DOGE’s Notice To Federal Workers
On Saturday, the Trump administration sent emails to US federal government employees instructing them to outline their work accomplishments from the previous week by Monday night or risk job loss.
The emails were dispatched shortly after Musk posted on X that failure to respond to the email request would be interpreted as a resignation. “All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk declared on X.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
Musk’s post came just hours after President Donald Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that DOGE should intensify its efforts to streamline and reshape the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce.
As of Saturday night, emails were delivered to employees across various federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the subject line, “What did you do last week?”
This subject line echoes Musk’s question to Agrawal three years earlier. The email reportedly requires employees to reply with five bullet points summarizing “what you accomplished at work last week” and to copy their managers.
It was sent from a human resources address from the Office of Personnel Management, providing employees until 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday to respond.
It remains unclear what legal authority Musk has to fire federal workers for not complying with his request and what consequences employees who cannot disclose confidential work might face.
Some federal judiciary employees received the email on Saturday from OPM, even though the court system is not part of the executive branch, according to sources close to the situation who spoke to news agency Reuters.
Employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also reportedly received the email. However, most agency staff had been instructed not to engage in any work since early this month, creating a dilemma. The agency is currently also under a temporary court order preventing mass firings pending legal proceedings.