On Saturday afternoon, Pres. Musk sent an email to all or many Federal workers. His first email said all employees will receive an email soon. Failure to respond to that email will be seen as a resignation. Then came a second email asking all Federal employees to reply with a description of what they accomplished at work last week. The reply is due Monday at 11:59 p.m. Pres. Elon sent both emails Saturday afternoon. Both emails were sent short;y after co-Pres. Trump posted that Elon should become more “aggressive” with the Federal workforce.

It is exceedingly strange to send an email to all your employees on a Saturday afternoon. Too, what could Pres. Elon possibly do with that information. He will have no understanding if their stated accomplishments amount to anything or not.

Salary Employees

Most Federal workers are paid salary. So, demanding that they work on the weekend is not onerous and not necessarily violative of any laws. If your boss calls you or texts you on the weekend, he is in effect asking you to work. For hourly employees, that employee would need to be paid for that time. But, for salaried employees, this is why they are paid salary – so they can work a little extra on the weekend.

But, to email something so trivial, so amorphous to hundreds or thousands of employees on the weekend is just strange.. This sort of act suggests Pres. Elon – and by extension Co-Pres. Trump – seek to inflict some cruelty on Federal employees. Placing hundreds or thousands of employees in fear for their jobs for no apparent job need is cruel. Pres. Elon and – by extension co-Pres. Trump – really do appear to be trying to force Federal workers to quit. The is the strangest conduct. See The Hill news report here for more information.

Implied Consent

And, could an employer infer resignation from a lack of response to an email? I have been practicing some years. I have never heard of a scenario in which any agreement could ever be inferred from lack of a response. It is a truism in contract law that silence does not equal consent. It would be a strange world indeed in which we could make contracts based on silence. Could Jerry Jones tell Dak Prescott that this year, he will pay Dak only $10 for the entire year – unless he replies by 11:59 p.m.?

Indeed, can we even make agreements based on one email? What if a Federal employee emails a response to Pres. Elon, but it is not received? Not every email reaches its destination. Many workers do not check their emails over the weekend. How can Pres. Elon be sure every Federal worker will see the email in time? In the end, cruelty seems to be the point. We have never had a co-President before. And, we have never had a President or co-President who seek to deliberately cause fear and panic among his employees.

Affirmative Act

The good folks at Gilbert Employment Law say that under current MSPB precedent, an Agency cannot impose a resignation on an employee. There must be some affirmative act the employee that indicates an intent to resign. “Under precedent, a resignation requires an affirmative act by the employee expressing their desire to resign, communicated to a responsible official (that is, the employee’s supervisor).” See The Gilbert Employment blog on this same subject here.