10 hours ago
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San Francisco, US:
Elon Musk took a swipe on Saturday (local time) at Parag Agrawal, former X chief executive officer (CEO), who was sacked in 2022 after the Tech billionaire took over the platform. This came as Musk, who has been roped in by US President Donald Trump to head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), issued a diktat to federal employees to justify their work over the past week or lose their jobs.
Replying to a post on X that said "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 wrote, "Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired."
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025Elon Musk-Parag Agrawal Fallout
Ever since Musk's order to federal workers, netizens have been posting memes and screenshots of an old conversation between Agrawal and the Tesla chief before he acquired the microblogging platform in 2022.
In his post, Agrawal had said: "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".
Replying, Musk had asked, "What did you get done this week?"
The public exchange, which was seen as a major fallout between the two, eventually led to Musk firing Agrawal from X.
DOGE's Notice To Federal Workers
On Saturday, The Trump administration sent emails to US federal government employees telling them to detail their work accomplishments from the previous week by Monday night or risk losing their jobs.
The emails came shortly after Musk posted on the social media site X that not responding to the email request would be viewed as a resignation. "All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk posted on X.
"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
Musk issued his post just hours after President Donald Trump posted on his own social media network, Truth Social, that DOGE should get more aggressive in its attempts to downsize and reshape the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce.
As of Saturday evening, emails were sent to employees across federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others with the subject line, "What did you do last week?"
The subject line harks back to Musk's poser to Agrawal three years ago. The email reportedly asks 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 and gives employees until 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday to respond.
It is unclear what legal basis Musk has to terminate federal workers if they fail to respond to his request and what would happen to employees who cannot detail confidential work.
Some federal judiciary employees received the email on Saturday from OPM, even though the court system is not part of the executive branch, people familiar with the matter told news agency Reuters.
Workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also reportedly received the email. However, most agency staff had been ordered not to perform any tasks since early this month, creating a conundrum. The agency is also under a temporary court order not to resume mass firings pending the outcome of legal proceedings.
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