Musk caused alarm among federal employees over an email sent on Saturday requesting that employees summarize their work.

Musk initially said the request was a 'very basic pulse check,' but now says it will root out 'non-existent people or...dead people' who are collecting paychecks. Several agencies are telling employees to ignore the email for now.

In President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s latest move targeting the federal workforce, employees began receiving emails Saturday afternoon asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.