The quiet end stands in sharp contrast to how the program began during the early weeks of the Trump administration as a DOGE initiative mirroring one that then-DOGE leader Elon Musk had employed in the private sector. Image: GWImages/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has quietly ended its role in the program to have federal employees report on five things they accomplished at work the previous week, an initiative that began as highly controversial but over time had diminished.
OPM director Scott Kupor made that announcement as a small part of a blog posting on recent actions by the agency, saying that “At the same time, we decided to end the “five things” email reporting process. Our view is simple: every federal manager has an obligation to track and prioritize what their team is working on – be that through regular one-on-ones or otherwise.”
“The five things email was an augment to that, so if managers find it useful to deploy, they of course are free to do so directly. But OPM will no longer maintain a centralized inbox for this practice,” he wrote.
The quiet end stands in sharp contrast to how the program began during the early weeks of the Trump administration as a DOGE initiative mirroring one that then-DOGE leader Elon Musk had employed in the private sector. An initial email giving employees two days to provide “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week” did not explicitly threaten disciplinary action for not responding, but in a posting his X social media platform, DOGE project leader Elon Musk had said that “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
That roiled the federal workplace, with agencies including DHS, State and the intelligence community initially telling their employees not to respond. That was due to potential security concerns of employees having to their activities to what was then a new and unknown email address. A second similar email sent shortly after the first clarified that any such information should be excluded.
The initial resistance by some employees drew criticism and even ridicule from Trump administration officials who called the requirement not burdensome and suggested that some federal employees did not do even five things per week. In a follow-up posting, Musk said the intent was “basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.”
In response, many employees argued that their concern involved reporting outside of their agency’s chain of command, with some pointing out that they already send weekly or even daily activity reports to their management—many in far more detail.
After the initial emails, some agencies turned the program into an ongoing weekly requirement, with summary results in turn reported to OPM. However, there has been no central accounting of how widely the practice has been followed since the early months of the year.
One notable change occurred in May when DoD ended its program of weekly reporting, while asking employees to submit recommendations for how the department could operate more efficiently.
Several Federal Agencies Disavow Union Contracts, with More Likely to Follow
‘Only High Performers’ Should Receive Awards, Agencies Told
OPM Quietly Ends Its Role in ‘Five Things’ Reporting
COVID Vaccination Data to Be Deleted from Federal Personnel Records
Numbers, Impact of Federal Job Cuts Draw Increasing Scrutiny
OPM Limits Length of Paid Leave in Reorgs—Starting Next Year
See also,
What to Know About the New Federal Application Process
Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees
A Pre-RIF Checklist for Every Federal Employee, From a Federal Employment Attorney
Work Longer or Take the FERS Supplement Now: Which is Better?
