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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has directed all civilian employees of the Pentagon to respond to an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) email requiring them to list five accomplishments from the previous week.
Some shit you should know before you read: Roughly two weeks ago, Elon Musk directed OPM to send an email to all federal employees demanding they provide a five-bullet summary of their weekly accomplishments, a practice he enforces at his own companies like Tesla and SpaceX. The directive caused confusion, particularly within intelligence and defense-related agencies, where officials raised concerns about security and the implications for those working on classified projects. Agencies such as the Pentagon, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the FBI initially instructed their employees not to respond, citing the potential risk of exposing classified work and the lack of clear guidance on how the information would be used. Musk became frustrated and publicly criticized the agencies for refusing to comply, arguing that anyone with a “heartbeat and neurons” should be able to complete the task. He also stated that failure to reply could be considered a resignation.
What’s going on now: In a reversal, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has now ordered all civilian employees of the Pentagon to comply with the OPM email directive. In a video posted on social media, Hegseth stated, “I am now directing each member of the department’s civilian workforce—just civilians—to provide those five bullets on what they accomplished in their specific jobs last week.” He noted that responses must be sent to OPM and copied to employees’ immediate supervisors.
Hegseth described the email as a “simple task” and echoed Musk’s previous statements, calling the responses a “pulse check” to ensure these employees are actually “alive” and “real people.”
Hegseth also explained why the Pentagon initially held off on complying with Musk’s directive, saying the department had to review “procedures in consultation with OPM because [they] work on topics of national security.” He framed the move as part of a broader initiative to make the Pentagon more efficient, stating that his goal is to “streamline [the] workforce.”
According to the Pentagon, all civilian employees will receive the email again on Monday and have 48 hours to respond. Employees must include “their accomplishments” and CC their supervisors. The Pentagon warned that failure to comply “may lead to further review.”
