Federal workers have a midnight deadline Monday to list five things they accomplished last week or lose their jobs, according to President Trump's special assistant, Elon Musk.

Workers in Chicago said there's been a lot of back and forth about what they're supposed to do, with some being told not to respond. However, it is unclear whether they will be punished for failing to respond to the email that many thought was junk mail.

"This email in no way serves the American taxpayer."

EPA scientist Loreen Targos in the Great Lakes National Program Office said she was one of the millions of federal employees who received the email directing them to list "5 bullets of what you accomplished last week" by midnight Monday.

On his social media platform X, Elon Musk warned that "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, President Trump said Musk's email was necessary.

"I thought it was great," Trump said. "Because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist. That's how badly parts of our government were run and especially by this last group."

"I think the implication is that we don't do any work and that we would have nothing to populate these five bullets with, which is insulting, disrespectful, and has no evidence to support it," Targos said.

"I've never received something like that before in any administration. I've been there since Bush one," said Nicole Cantello with the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 

The federation represents about 1,000 federal workers in Chicago.

"So we just got guidance from our managers about five minutes ago, in which they instructed us to answer the email but not reveal any confidential information," she said. 

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley's office confirmed that confidential sources tell them that there are orders to start vacating federal office spaces across Illinois — including the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building and Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building in the Loop.

"I think that adds to the unending cycle of contradictions that we see from this administration," Targos said.

Targos and Cantello note that if true, the cuts to federal office space would come as this administration is simultaneously pushing to require federal employees to return to the office five days a week.

"If anything, it's waste fraud and abuse; it's closing these offices and then paying to move people to a new office for no reason at all," Cantello said.

Federal workers have since filed a lawsuit against Musk over the email. 

When asked about both federal buildings in the Loop, a spokesperson for the General Services Administration, the agency that manages the federal government's property, said in a statement:

GSA is reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization. GSA is actively working with our tenant agencies to assess their space needs and fully optimize the federal footprint, and we'll share more information on specific savings and facilities as soon as we're able.