The Spoon Emoji Has Become Part of a Rallying Cry for Some Federal Employees

Through the first three weeks of the Trump administration, Elon Musk has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the federal government. One of Musk's major initiatives from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is to encourage federal employees to voluntarily resign from their jobs with the assurance that they'll get paid through September.

In response, some inside the federal government have started to use the spoon emoji. Now, many want to know what the emoji means. Here's what we know.

The spoon emoji was leveraged in response to an email sent from Musk's associates with the subject "A Fork in the Road." According to reporting from The New York Times, employees at the Technology Transformation Services have used spoon emojis in response to messages from Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who has been appointed to lead these reduction efforts inside the Government Services Administration.

“Have that context in mind as you think through the decision you have to make in the next 24 to 30 hours,” Shedd said in an audio recording obtained from the Times, referring to information available on the Office of Personnel Management website. “The deferred resignation is the first step in streamlining the federal workforce. In-person work will be the next step.”

Spoon emojis apparently came down in force in response to that recorded message, suggesting that many employees are responding to Musk's fork with a spoon. The spoon is meant to symbolize employees who have decided not to resign and are instead determined to dig their heels in and resist Musks' incursions into the federal government.

Twitter employees apparently used the salute emoji in a similar way when Musk was cutting employees in a similar way at that organization.

People inside and outside of the federal government are signaling solidarity with the federal employees who have decided to keep their jobs in spite of Musk's plans. In the comments under a TikTok video discussing the initiative, users were encouraged to drop a spoon emoji, and many also left comments about the situation that's currently unfolding inside the federal government.

"🥄🥄🥄🥄🥄I luv being a federal employee! I work my a-- off to serve the American people!! WE ARE NOT THE ENEMY!!" one person wrote in the comments under the video.

"🥄🥄🥄 you'll have to use this spoon to force me out of my job I love!!! All for the veterans," another person added.

What's clear is that plenty of federal employees are looking to double down now that they know just how badly Musk wants to get rid of them. While some employees have definitely taken the easy out, many appear to be staying where they are, and are using the spoon emoji to tell one another and the public just how dug in they're prepared to be. Musk is determined to make the federal workforce smaller, but we don't know what his next move will be.