Email: CDC workers can ignore 'What did you do last week' demand

Ariel Hart, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Feb 24, 2025

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An email demand over the weekend to all federal employees, including those at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for a list of work accomplishments in the past week has led to chaos across the government workforce.

Those instructions were changed Monday for all Department of Health and Human Services employees — including those at the CDC — when a new email from HHS said they do not have to respond to the demand for information.

If they do, the email said, the employees’ information might go to unnamed foreign enemies.

“Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly,” said Monday’s email, which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has viewed.

The new email came after much of Monday’s workday had passed.

CBS News reported earlier Monday that the Office of Personnel Management, which was the source of the original email, told White House officials that individual agencies could decide how to respond to the demand.

President Donald Trump’s administration sent the original email Saturday afternoon, titled: “What did you do last week?” The email required workers to respond before midnight Monday with five bullet-pointed accomplishments.

Presidential adviser Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X that an employee’s failure to respond would be taken as a resignation, even though the actual email to employees did not make that claim.

Beyond that inconsistency, some federal health workers said the demand put them in a bind because they had been ordered by the administration to stop much of their usual duties, leaving gaps in their workweek. Those at the CDC may no longer communicate with outside partners or with the World Health Organization, for example. Workers who attend a meeting and learn that WHO is present are ordered to leave the gathering.

And there were other problems.

All responses were to be sent a single email address no matter from which part of the government they came — a potential bonanza for hackers trying to get information on how the U.S. government works, critics said. The email address was widely publicized after it went out.

Some agencies balked. Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel contradicted the Office of Personnel Management and officially told FBI staff not to respond.

Throughout the weekend and most of Monday, other employees across federal government received conflicting advice from supervisors and the unions. Even employees within the CDC got different advice depending on which center they worked in, according to an employee there. The employee did not want to be named for fear of retaliation.

The HHS email was sent to all departmental employees, and said they could respond to the demand for information about accomplishments if they want but would face no punishment for not doing so. The CDC is a part of HHS.

The CDC had employed approximately 13,000 workers, most of them in Georgia. Several hundred were fired last week, but a final tally has not been released.