OPM guidance strips language saying response to emails is 'explicitly voluntary'

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) quietly updated a privacy impact assessment on its efforts to email all federal workers, stripping language indicating that responses from the staffers were “explicitly voluntary.”

The Friday update came ahead of a second email spearheaded by Elon Musk demanding federal workers provide a list of five bullet points recapping what they accomplished the week prior.

OPM prepared a privacy impact assessment after it was sued for its creation of a database of federal employees using the hr@opm.gov email.

Now gone is language indicating employees have no obligation to respond, while leaving unclear whether failure to do so will be taken as a “resignation” like Musk previously said.

“Individual federal government employees can decline to provide information by not responding to the email. The consequences for failure to provide the requested information will vary depending on the particular email at issue,” the document states.

The document still concludes that “there is a risk that individuals will not know their information is being collected, maintained, and distributed through the [government-wide email system].”

Kel McClanahan, an attorney representing multiple government employees who sued over the email distribution system citing privacy concerns, criticized OPM for the shift.

“While one might commend OPM for officially acknowledging that it blatantly misrepresented the facts to the public and a federal judge about the ‘voluntariness’ of responses to these mass emails, nobody should lose sight of the fact that OPM blatantly misrepresented the facts to the public and a federal judge,” he said in a statement to The Hill.

“Quietly editing an official document while loudly proclaiming that there is nothing to see here is hardly commendable.”

The change follows resistance from some agency leaders who instructed employees not to respond, reflecting a turf war between some Cabinet members and Musk.

The update will no doubt lead to more confusion among federal workers about the emails and whether they must respond.

While some agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security kicked off an internal process for listing their accomplishments, others still directed employees to send their responses to the OPM email.

Other agencies, like the State Department, are still advising employees not to respond.

—Updated at 12:31 p.m. EST

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