For some workers, compiling a weekly progress report is a routine part of their job, and forgetting to do it usually carries little or no consequences.
However, the ramifications can be more severe for others – as many US federal employees found out when they received an email instructing them to submit their weekly accomplishments or face having to quit. Elon Musk, who leads the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), warned on X: “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
While the latest move by the Trump administration to curtail government spending through funding cuts and firings may not apply to everyone, the situation does highlight the potential pitfalls of employers asking staff to compile a list of what they've done over a certain period.
Summarising accomplishments in the workplace can lead to issues such as heightened stress and an increase in performative work in a bid to look busy, instead of carrying out more meaningful chores, warns John Beck, a lawyer and founding partner at Beck & Beck Missouri Lawyers.
“When you force workers to justify their jobs on a weekly basis with the threat of resignation, you create an environment where actual productivity takes a backseat to survival. The outcomes are rarely positive,” says Beck.
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“It forces employees into a defensive mindset. Instead of focusing on meaningful work, they start thinking about how to protect themselves, leading to unnecessary documentation, redundant reports, and wasted time.”
It’s likely workers will prioritise engaging in performative work, where workers give the appearance of productivity rather than delivering actual results. “When people know they’re being judged based on what they can prove in writing every week, they will focus on tasks that look good on paper rather than those that actually matter,” Beck adds.
Another issue is that it can be difficult to convert qualitative tasks into quantifiable achievements. Workers are under increasing pressure to ‘be productive’, but it can be difficult to quantify what counts – and what should be included on a formal list.
“This issue of forcing workers to list achievements comes back to our inability to clearly articulate what we mean by productivity for those working in an office,” says Jenni Field, a leadership expert and founder and CEO of Redefining Communications.
“While that remains a challenge, there is a more practical issue here and that is giving employees objectives, having regular conversations about how those objectives are progressing and dealing with any challenges along the way,” adds Field. “How can we expect people to list achievements if there has been no conversation about what success looks like?”
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