I think there is a whole lot of "I don't like being told what to do" / "I don't trust the motive behind this" / "I don't like change" - one or all of those. I have seen push back on about it from folks on both sides of the political aisle. In some cases I think the departments are doing their jobs and there are already reports being done at regular intervals and there is no need for a response when the department will have those answers anyway.

But, truth be told, if every supervisor up the chain of command was doing their jobs, this whole thing wouldn't even be an issue in my opinion. Those that were not bringing enough to the table to justify being paid should have been cut loose prior to this email anyway.

As for reduction in force, that is another issue and tenure shouldn't override productivity. If everything else is equal but time on the job, then tenure should carry some weight.