After initially telling civilian employees not to respond to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency email (DOGE), Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth instructed them to list five accomplishments after he had told them to ignore it.
Hegseth sent out a video explaining his decision on Sunday.
Hegseth stated, “Our civilian patriots, who work for the Department of Defense and dedicate themselves to protecting this nation are crucial to our national safety. As we strive to restore the focus of the DOD’s warfighting core mission under President Trump, we acknowledge that without our strong and valuable civilian workforce, we will not be able to accomplish this mission.”
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 sent a memo to civilian DOD employees on Friday, in anticipation of an email that was expected from DOD to send on Monday asking for the five bullets of achievements.
Hegseth instructed employees that they should reply within 48 hours, include any accomplishments made, and make their supervisors 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 requested the same five bullets via email over the weekend. However, the DOD Office of Personnel and Readiness informed its civilian employees to ignore this request.
After working closely with OPM, the DOD has a new approach to the request.
Hegseth’s memo stated that the Department of Defense had initially suspended this directive but has now required all DOD civil employees to submit five bullets about their achievements from the previous week.
The email he sent on Monday was a message to which employees of the DOD should reply, but responses must not contain sensitive or classified data.
Hegseth said that non-compliance could lead to a further review.