Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed the Department of Defense (DOD)’s civilian workforce to comply with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) productivity email, listing five things they accomplished after initially telling them not to reply.
On Sunday, Hegseth released a video message explaining the shift.
‘Our civilian patriots who dedicate themselves to defending this nation working for the Department of Defense are critical to our national security,’ Hegseth said. ‘As we work to restore focus on DOD’s core warfighting mission under President Trump’s leadership, we recognize that we cannot accomplish that mission without the strong and important contributions of our civilian workforce.’
Musk, who’s heading up DOGE, shared Hegseth’s video on X, writing, ‘Much appreciated @SecDef Hegseth!’ He also included a saluting emoji and an American flag emoji.
Hegseth signed a memorandum on Friday to all DOD civilian employees, ahead of an anticipated email expected to be sent from the DOD on Monday requesting the five bullet points of accomplishments.
Hegseth told employees to reply to the email within 48 hours and include their accomplishments and add their supervisors as recipients.
He said in the video that the responses would be collected within the department to satisfy the requirement sent out by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
OPM sent an email last weekend, seeking the same five bullets, though the DOD’s Office of Personnel and Readiness told its civilian workforce to ignore the request.
The DOD is taking a different approach to the request this week after working with OPM to get better guidance on what is expected.
‘The Department of Defense initially paused this directive … but now requires all DOD civilian employees to submit five bullets on their previous week’s achievements,’ Hegseth said in his memorandum.
He told employees Monday’s email is something DOD employees should respond to, though responses should not include sensitive or classified information.
Hegseth also said non-compliance may lead to further review.