Elon Musk caused alarm among federal employees and drew ire over an email sent on Saturday requesting that employees summarize their work for the week, and warning on social media that a failure to do so would be taken as a resignation.

Musk initially said the request was a 'very basic pulse check,' but now says it will root out 'non-existent people or...dead people' who are collecting paychecks. Several agencies are telling employees to ignore the email for now.

The U.S. Transportation Department told workers they should respond to a demand by President Donald Trump's adviser Elon Musk to list their accomplishments in the past week by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday.