Federal workers are beginning to receive bounce-back emails from their mandated weekly progress reports stating that the federal human resources inbox is full, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
The Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to monitor federal worker's productivity seems to have encountered a technical glitch as some employees received bounce-back notices informing them that the receipt's inbox could no longer accept additional emails. "The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now. Please try resending your message later, or contact the recipient directly," stated an email reviewed by the outlet that had been returned from HR@opm.gov.
The Department of Health and Human Services told its employees it was aware that emails being sent to the Office of Personnel Management were being sent back and advised them to send their weekly bullets to another OPM address instead. The returned emails are likely to cause further mockery toward DOGE which has touted the technical prowess of its employees and processes.
In February, DOGE head Elon Musk announced that all federal employees would be required to produce a weekly email detailing five things they did in their official capacity. The order was met with instant derision and internal confusion with some agencies giving contradictory orders that pushed back against Musk.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees said, "Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people. "
Originally Musk gave employees an ultimatum to respond to the request within a week or be terminated. That deadline was then moved to another week with some departments telling their employees to only send the report internally while others said the bullets were voluntary. The FBI, State Department, and Pentagon told their employees not to respond the DOGE email.
Over 100 Democrats crafted an open letter to the heads of 24 federal agencies urging them to push back on Musk's demand of a weekly email. "Mr. Musk's threat is reckless, cruel, unlawful, and unenforceable," the Democrats wrote. "You must take immediate action to clarify that the federal employees at your agency are not obligated to respond to this ill-conceived email stunt and that nonresponse cannot constitute resignation."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.