Washington DC - A second email asking federal workers to justify their jobs was sent late Friday, as part of President Donald Trump's initiative to slash spending.

It came a week after Elon Musk, the billionaire appointed by Trump to downsize the government, engineered a first mass emailing to the federal government's two million employees, ordering them to justify their work or risk being fired.

That first message, sent from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government's human resources department, had created confusion among an already anxious workforce, as multiple federal agencies told staff to ignore it.

Friday's email again asked staff to respond with around five bullet points describing their week's accomplishments and added that it would become a weekly task.

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The latest round of emails, carrying the subject line "What did you do last week? Part II," went to workers at various federal agencies.

"Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets describing what you accomplished last week and CC your manager," read the email, seen by AFP.

Musk – whom Trump placed in charge of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasking it with slashing public spending and tackling alleged waste and corruption – has not commented on his X platform about the new emails.

Unlike the first email, the second message also asked workers to send their list of accomplishments by the end of Monday on a weekly basis going forward.

It also said workers whose activities are classified or sensitive could simply respond with "All of my activities are sensitive."

Musk had said the original email "was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email."

Trump, in a message on his Truth Social platform, had praised Musk for "doing a great job" but said, "I would like to see him get more aggressive."