WASHINGTON — Federal workers faced fresh uncertainty about their futures on Tuesday after Elon Musk gave them "another chance "to respond to his ultimatum that they justify their jobs or risk termination, contradicting guidance from some officials that the request was voluntary.

The confusing back-and-forth has rippled through the federal bureaucracy, with some agencies instructing workers to comply and others not. It has become a test of how much power Musk wields over the government's operations as he pursues an unprecedented cost-cutting campaign with US President Donald Trump's backing.

Twenty-one workers resigned from his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in protest on Tuesday, saying they refused to aid the downsizing effort.

"We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services," the employees wrote in a resignation posted online.

DOGE did not respond to a request for comment on the resignations.

The workers, who include data scientists, product managers and the division head of IT, were employed in an office known as the United States Digital Service before Musk took it over and renamed it DOGE, after a favorite cryptocurrency.

The resignations added to the drama surrounding Musk's email demand, which was sent to employees across the government asking them to summarize their accomplishments of the past week by Monday. In a post on X, the social media site Musk owns, he asserted that failure to respond would constitute resignation.

With the deadline approaching on Monday, the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, the government's human resources arm, told workers they could ignore the email.

Musk, the billionaire CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, was undeterred.

"Subject to the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination," he wrote on X late on Monday without setting a new deadline.

Before the new OPM guidance, Trump said workers who did not respond would be "sort of semi-fired," adding to the uncertainty.

Asked on Tuesday whether the renewed threat would be carried out against non-compliant employees, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would defer to cabinet secretaries' guidance for their workforces.

Musk was expected to attend Trump's Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, she said.

Musk's downsizing initiative has laid off more than 20,000 workers, with another 75,000 accepting buyouts, and the efforts continued to accelerate on Tuesday.

AGENCIES VIA XINHUA