On Saturday afternoon, federal employees received an email asking what they did last week.

Then the confusion set in.

Some employees refused to open the email, which was from an unusual address through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), for fear that it was a phishing attempt.

Some inboxes sent the email directly to spam.

One source said it would be illegal to reply because of the sensitive nature of their work.

“I want to comply – I’m not trying to cause a fuss, I’m not trying to be a hero,” the source said. But “I don’t want to do something illegal.”

It was a conundrum the employee never expected to face: get fired for not responding, or get fired for sharing information illegally?

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Adding to the confusion was conflicting guidance from agencies.

Employees at health agencies, for instance, received an email on Sunday a little after 10:30 am confirming the legitimacy of the email and asking employees to complete the questions.

Here’s the email in full:

On Saturday, February 22, 2025, OPM sent an email to all federal employees titled “What did you do last week?”. This is a legitimate email. Please read and respond per the instructions by Monday, February 24 [at] 11:59pmEST.

But then a second email arrived around 5:30 pm:

Dear colleagues,

HHS leadership continues to work with OPM officials on how best to meet the intent of yesterday’s notice to employees while being mindful of the sensitivity of the information and initiatives ongoing within the HHS Operational and Staff Divisions.

Employees are therefore directed to “pause” activities in answering the OPM email.

Additional guidance will be provided on or around noon tomorrow, ensuring HHS employees and leaders have sufficient time to assess OPM’s guidance and still meet the Monday 11:59 PM deadline.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents about 150,000 federal employees, also sent an email with new guidance: Follow your agency’s lead.

If your agency says to respond, employees must respond. If not, they should not. If they haven’t received any guidance, don’t respond until you do, NTEU said.

Here’s part of that email:

If your agency is directing you to respond, you should seek guidance from your supervisor as to what information should be included in the bullets requested. To avoid providing confidential or sensitive information, you may want to look at your position description to provide broad statements about the important work you do.

Legal experts told me this is a good play for any employee responding to the email. In addition to the risk of sharing sensitive information, there are potential risks to seeming like you are under- or over-performing at your job by explaining your day-to-day.

The NTEU also blasted the OPM request as “wholly unnecessary” and “wasteful”:

Attacks intended to intimidate and manipulate the federal workforce need to stop.

Update: A few minutes before 5 pm, HHS sent out a message to employees saying that responding to the OPM email is voluntary, and failure to respond would not affect a person’s job.

HHS urged employees who choose to respond to keep the details vague in order to protect sensitive information and to send it in by the midnight deadline.

And then a directive I’ve had to reread a dozen times:

Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.

Got a tip? Message me on Signal at melodyschreiber.06 from a non-work device.

Top image: A laptop’s keyboard and mouse. Photo: JamiesRabbits.