Defense secretary directs civilian employees to comply with OPM request

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is directing the civilian workforce at the Pentagon to respond to the Office of Personnel Management’s request for a list of their accomplishments for the past week.

The announcement comes after the Department of Defense initially told employees to ignore the Feb. 22 request and Elon Musk’s warning that failure to do so would amount to a resignation.  

Mr. Hegseth said the Pentagon reviewed the OPM request and said DOD employees are now expected to comply with the “What You Did Last Week?” email scheduled to arrive Monday.

“I am now directing each member of the department’s civilian workforce, just civilian, to provide those five bullets on what they accomplished in their specific jobs last week,” Mr. Hegseth said in a video posted on social media.

“It is a simple task, as Elon said, as the president recognized in our first cabinet meeting. It is just a pulse check,” he added.

Mr. Hegseth said employees should reply to the email and send a copy to their supervisors.

“We will take that into consideration as we make sure we are being as focused and as tailored as possible in looking at how we streamline our workforce to both meet the fiscal demands of the moment, but also ensure we have the strongest, most viable fighting force in the world,” he said.

The Department of Defense employs over 720,000 civilians.

Mr. Musk dominated Mr. Trump’s first Cabinet meeting this week, outlining the moves the Department of Government Efficiency is making to cut wasteful government spending.

Mr. Musk said the first OPM email was “misinterpreted as a performance review.”

“But actually it was a pulse check view: ‘Do you have a pulse?’” Mr. Musk said, sparking laughter from Cabinet officials. “Do you have a pulse and two neurons?”

“This is, you know, I think, not a high bar,” Mr. Musk said.