Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered all of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) civilian workers to comply with requests for information from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Specifically, the DOD workforce was directed to comply with the DOGE productivity email.
The email asked federal employees to list five things they accomplished over the past week.
Hegseth noted that some employees are not able to reply to the email because their work is classified.
However, civilian workers have now been given the green light to reply to the email.
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.”
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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.
The move came ahead of an anticipated email the DOD sent on Monday morning requesting the five bullet points of accomplishments.
Hegseth told employees to reply to the email within 48 hours, 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.
However, 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 that Monday’s email is something DOD employees should respond to.
However, he noted that responses should not include sensitive or classified information.
Hegseth also said non-compliance may lead to further review.
READ MORE – Democrat Demands Elon Musk&’s DOGE Stop Sending ‘Chaotic’ Emails to Federal Workers
