• Elon Musk's DOGE had emails sent to federal workers requesting a list of what they did last week.
• The decision frustrated federal workers, many of whom risk losing their jobs.
• A career coach told BI that DOGE's approach is "fear-based management."

Elon Musk's management style has once again sparked intense debate, this time for asking federal employees to respond to an email with what they accomplished in the past week — or risk losing their jobs.

Musk, a special government employee who is the face of the DOGE White House office, is known for his disruptive leadership style at Tesla, SpaceX, and X.

He is now applying those same tactics to federal operations — with mixed reactions from business leaders and government officials.

"This method is not just ineffective, it's harmful," George Carrillo, a former Oregon government executive, told Business Insider.

Carrillo, the CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, previously worked as a program executive at the Oregon Department of Human Services.

"Overloading employees with unrealistic demands creates instability and causes talented workers to leave, which risks disrupting the continuity and expertise the government depends on to function," he said. "I've seen firsthand how these kinds of actions can harm team dynamics and reduce public confidence."

On Saturday, federal employees received an email asking them to respond with a five-bullet-point summary of their work in the last week and to copy their manager.

"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk said in a post on X before the emails went out.

The emails appeared to be in response to President Donald Trump, who earlier said on TruthSocial that Musk should be "more aggressive."

The email resembled one Musk sent when he took over Twitter — now rebranded as X — in 2022. Following the acquisition, Musk instructed engineers to print out their latest software code for review as a way to evaluate their skills.

Some business leaders said DOGE's approach could yield results, despite the negative reaction.

Neal K. Shah, CareYaya Health Technologies CEO, told BI that the approach shows a "commitment to rapid organizational improvement" and has "unique advantages over traditional downsizing."

Shah said DOGE's method "slices through typical government delays caused by bureaucracy" and "directly empowers employees to control the documentation of their worth."

He also said it gives leadership real-time productivity data, which could lead to long-term benefits like better documentation of work-related tasks, efficiency, and boosting public trust through "demonstrated effectiveness."

Other management experts, however, said the email demonstrated a lack of empathy and could hurt morale, ultimately reducing efficiency. Federal employees told BI that DOGE's email left them frustrated and fearful of losing their jobs. One told BI the action felt like "harassment."

Lisa Rigoli, a human resources strategist and leadership coach who founded Elements of Change, a group focused on HR consultation and leadership coaching, said the email lacked emotional intelligence and prioritized "efficiency over human-centered leadership."

"This is a clear example of how leaders are becoming increasingly disconnected from the emotional impact of their decisions," Rigoli said. "Business schools and leadership programs do a great job preparing executives intellectually, but very few equip them for the emotional demands of leadership."

Tamanna Ramesh, founder of professional training service Career Sparks, said such tactics could damage staff morale.

"Requiring employees to justify their jobs through a weekly report — under the threat of termination — is fear-based management. It doesn't drive innovation or efficiency. It fuels resentment, disengagement, and quiet quitting," Ramesh told BI. "Accountability matters, but when employees feel like they're on trial rather than trusted contributors, performance suffers."

Ramesh said performance tracking is common, but the "level of public scrutiny and punitive framing is rare."

"This approach ignores psychological safety, a key driver of high-performing teams," Ramesh said.

Rigoli told BI that DOGE's email is part of a "growing trend where leaders handle layoffs with cold efficiency rather than intentional leadership.

"We ask employees to be loyal, transparent, and committed, yet when organizations make cuts, they often default to impersonal mass communication," Rigoli said.

"Efficiency isn't about arbitrary cuts or applying pressure for the sake of it," Carrillo told BI. "Successful organizations build trust, foster collaboration, and create thoughtful strategies to meet their goals while maintaining staff morale."

He suggested making "informed' and "data-driven decisions."

"Before considering layoffs, DOGE must conduct a comprehensive workforce analysis to pinpoint priorities and address staffing gaps," Carrillo said.

Majorities of Americans disapprove of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency-driven upheaval of the federal workforce, several recent polls show.

The big picture: While Republican lawmakers have contended voters wanted drastic change, new polling suggests the Trump administration may be taking their chainsaw-wielding executive reach too far for some.

• President Trump's approval ratings also took a slight hit in recently released polling, after his initial numbers were some of the highest of his political career, though weaker than other modern presidents at the start of their terms — other than himself in 2017.

Driving the news: Trump's approval ratings dropped into more "normal territory" for him, as described in a Washington Post analysis of recent polling, which could spell trouble for the administration as their billionaire budget buster also slips underwater.

• In a Feb. 13-18 Washington Post-Ipsos poll, a net 34% of respondents said they approved of how Musk was handling his job, compared to 49% disapproving and 14% not sure.
• The poll displayed a stark divide based on party ID, with just 6% of Democrats approving of how Musk has handled his job compared to 70% of Republicans.
• But when asked if they approved of Musk shutting down federal government programs he deemed unnecessary, a smaller slice of Republicans (56%) gave their blessing, while 25% said they weren't sure and 18% disapproved.

By the numbers: In several recent national polls, more respondents disapproved of Musk or the job he's doing than approved of him.

• Over half of respondents (55%) in a Quinnipiac University poll conducted Feb. 13 to 17 said Musk has too much power in making decisions affecting the U.S., while 36% think he has about the right amount of power.
• A Pew survey of U.S. adults taken Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 showed that Americans had more negative (54%) than positive (42%) views of Musk (DOGE's dissection of the federal government has dramatically escalated since the poll was conducted).
• And a Feb. 15 to Feb. 17 Emerson College Poll showed 45% of respondents disapproved of the job Musk was doing, while 41% approved and 14% were neutral.

Some of those polls also show that Trump's disapproval ratings are surpassing his approval ratings.

• Per the Washington Post-Ipsos poll, 27% strongly approve of how Trump is handling his job — 39% strongly disapprove.
• Sixty-two percent said they don't consider the words honest and trustworthy to apply to the president.
• But even as Trump's approval ratings dip, multiple surveys showed Musk's ratings are even lower.

What we're watching: Disapproval of DOGE doesn't seem to be fazing the president, who on Saturday called for Musk to be "MORE AGGRESSIVE."

• The broad purge of the federal workforce — stretching from the Internal Revenue Service to the National Parks Service — could have far-reaching impacts — and it seems Americans aren't so sure they like that.

Go deeper: Agencies, unions tell fed workers: Don't answer Musk's threat email

• Germany's center-right alliance looks set to win the country's latest federal election.
• The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, are set to win about 29% of the vote, exit polls say.
• The far-right Alternative for Germany party is set to take second place.

Germany's center-right alliance looks set to win the country's latest federal election, which comes at a critical moment for Europe's largest economy.

Early exit polls show the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, at about 29%, with the Elon Musk-backed Alternative for Germany in second at about 19.5%.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democratic Party is set to come in third, the polls showed.

Single parties rarely win majorities in German elections, so Friedrich Merz's CDU will need the support of one or more parties to secure a majority in government. His most likely options are the SDP and/or the Green Party.

The snap election followed the collapse of Germany's governing three-party coalition in November after Scholz fired then-Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the chair of the Free Democratic Party, after Lindner rejected Scholz's demand to suspend Germany's debt brake, which requires the federal government to limit annual net borrowing to 0.35% of GDP.

Scholz called a vote of confidence which he then lost in December, paving the way for early national elections.

The CDU/CSU bloc had been projected to win the vote, polling at around 30% in the run-up to the election.

The CDU's popularity seems to have been boosted by its harder line on major policy issues such as migration, pledging to enforce stricter border controls and accelerate asylum proceedings.

It also wants to retain Germany's debt brake, cut corporate tax rates to a maximum of 25%, and "eliminate unnecessary red tape."

The CDU has also pledged continued support to Ukraine.

The vote comes at a pivotal time for Berlin, which faces an increasingly assertive Trump administration that has threatened tariffs on the EU and looked to sideline Europe on negotiations with Russia over the Ukraine war.

Germany is a leading NATO member and a key provider of military aid to Ukraine — and it will play an important role in carving out Europe's future relations with the Trump administration.

After several historic regional election results and strong support from Musk, the AfD came into the elections in a jubilant mood.

Musk — who appeared virtually at a party campaign event alongside AfD leader Alice Weidel in January — has praised the group's staunchly anti-immigration stance.

"Only the AfD can save Germany," Musk posted on X in December.

President Trump's firings of Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown, Jr. and other top military leaders sends a "dangerous message" to service members about how the administration regards political loyalty, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said Sunday.

Why it matters: The controversial dismissals, which also hit Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife, come as the U.S. stares down instability abroad and amid tensions with some international allies.

• Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had in the past questioned whether Brown — a four-star fighter pilot who served as the first Black chief of staff of the Air Force and the second Black general to serve as chairman — was named to the post because of his race.
• Hegseth said in a Sunday interview with "Fox News Sunday" that while he has "a lot of respect" for Brown, he's "not the right man for the moment."
• Franchetti, whom CNN reports Hegseth once described as a "DEI hire," was the first woman to serve as the chief of naval operations.

Driving the news: Democrats and some former military officials decried Trump's move to boot respected leaders, characterizing the decision as a signal from the administration that partisan loyalties outweighed expertise and experience.

• The Joint Chiefs chair "should be independent of politics," Booker said on NBC's "Meet the Press Sunday," noting Brown was "supported overwhelmingly" on both sides of the political aisle.
• But Trump, Booker said, "has thrown that out the window and is sending a dangerous message to the military: 'It's not about your independent expertise. It's not about your years of service. It's about your personal political loyalty to me.'"

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on ABC's "This Week" that the firings were "completely unjustified" and mark "the beginning of a very, very serious degradation of the military and politicization of the military."

• Reed highlighted Hegseth's decision to fire the top Army, Navy and Air Force lawyers — judge advocates general, commonly known as JAGs — saying, "If you're going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers."

The other side: Hegseth slammed Reed's criticism as "a total mischaracterization."

• He continued, "This is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take."

Zoom in: Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told ABC's Martha Raddatz in a Sunday interview that he doesn't know whether the firings were "about DEI," contending, "bottom line here to me is the Department of Defense needed a complete overhaul."

• Trump has for years railed against "woke" generals and "wokeness" he says weakened the military, such as through diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
• Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) denied Rep. James Clyburn's (D-S.C.) contention that Trump may have fired Brown because he is Black, arguing to NBC's Kristen Welker Sunday that Clyburn "constantly pulls the race card out."
• "This had zero, absolutely zero to do with race," Mullin said.

Go deeper: Trump orders purge of military academy visitor boards