A Center Controller working combined sectors reported they became distracted and could not focus on the safe operation of their sector after being notified of the requirement to respond to an email from OPM to describe their work by the end of the day.

Narrative

I was working ZZZ Oceanic airspace on sector 5 and 6 combined with approximately 30 aircraft on a steady morning; everything was going well until there was a lot of distraction in the control room due to an email that our HR department sent out to the workforce asking us to reply by XA:59 pm. There was a lot of distraction because many people from the management team and controllers were gathering around in the control room which should be sterile environment due to the safety critical work we do. The reason there were so many people was because of this deadline to respond to an email asking employees 'what did you do last week?' This created a lot confusion; panic and overall a dangerous distraction to the workforce that is entrusted with the safety of the flying public. It was hard for me to focus on my primary duty of separating aircraft and providing a safe; orderly and expeditious flow of traffic because of the amount of people in the operations room; conversations unrelated to air traffic control and all the commotion that ensued from this unwarranted email. These distractions caused me to turn away from my sector. Our job as air traffic controller is to safeguard the flying public and not focus on replying to emails; it is not in our contract to maintain our mailbox. Furthermore; this email caused many of our controllers to take time away from performing their ATC duties to [sit] on a computer to respond to an email instead; which affected the amount of people available to offer breaks and relieve controllers who have been working airplanes. I had been on position for 2 hours waiting for someone to offer me a break but they were all distracted responding to this email. The air traffic control workforce is already dangerously short staffed as it is and this type of distraction caused by our HR department jeopardizes the safety in the aviation industry. My recommendation would be to ask our HR; OPM or leadership to not send out emails that are unnecessary and that only cause confusion; concern; and distraction from our priorities.