Federal workers have been instructed to remove any reference to their identifying pronouns from their email signatures and other forms, as agency and department leaders work to follow President Trump’s executive order to scrub all references to gender ideology in official government materials by 5 p.m. Friday.

“All employees are required to remove any gender identifying pronouns from email signature blocks,” instructions to State Department employees read, in an email they received Friday. Workers at agencies including the Labor Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs received similar directives.

The instructions to medical staff at some Veterans Affairs facilities also articulated how references to gender would have to be excised on forms: “The use of GENDER is not allowed on any form. We can only use SEX, and there should be only 2 options — MALE and FEMALE.”

At the Environmental Protection Agency, all-gender bathrooms were also closed, said Nicole Cantello, a former lawyer for the agency who represents its union in Chicago.

The directives come after the White House’s Office of Personnel Management distributed instructions on Wednesday to department and agency heads, ordering them to remove references to gender ideology from all official materials, including emails. They were also ordered to take down any websites or other public-facing materials that reference gender identity, and ensure that bathrooms in federal buildings were designated for biological males and females. The memo also instructed agency heads to place employees “whose position description involves inculcating or promoting gender ideology” on paid administrative leave.

In the Wednesday memo, the personnel office gave department heads until 5 p.m. Friday to carry out those orders, with instructions to report back to the office by noon on Feb. 7 to explain how they put the changes in place.