Update re: "What did you do last week?" Email

Yesterday, we advised employees who received an email from a U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) email address hr@opm.gov titled "What did you do last week?" to delay responding until further guidance was received. Here’s what we know as of the time this message is being sent.

Each federal agency is approaching responding to the email differently. Some are awaiting guidance from the departmental level. Others have issued guidance directing employees to respond.

• If you have no guidance from your agency, wait for further instructions. Some agencies have indicated that they will issue guidance tomorrow (Monday) morning.
• If your agency says you do not need to respond, then do not respond to the email.
• If your agency instructs you to respond to the OPM email, you should follow their instructions.

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.

You should be given adequate time to receive guidance from your supervisor and to prepare a response.

This situation remains very fluid, and we are actively seeking out clearer information to pass along. It is incredibly unfortunate that you were required to complete this wholly unnecessary request. The work you do for the country is too important for you to devote time to a wasteful task. Attacks intended to intimidate and manipulate the federal workforce need to stop.

As soon as we have additional information and guidance to offer, we will share it with you.