Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said on Sunday that he had directed private employees in all departments to respond to emails from the Department of Personnel Management (OPM).
“I am currently instructing each member of the sector's private workforce (just a civilian) to provide five bullets on what I accomplished in a particular job last week,” Heggs said in a video posted on social media. “Reply to that email and CC to their direct supervisor.”
“It's really as simple as Elon's work. [Musk] Just a pulse check, as the president admitted at our first cabinet meeting – “Are you there?” – DoD for civilians,” continued Heggs.
Hegseth said in the video that the Department of Defense (DOD) civilian workforce will soon receive a second email outlining the next step “we need to take to comply with this initiative.”
Pentagon officials initially instructed employees not to respond to the initial OPM email sent on February 22nd. Heggs said it was a temporary suspension allowing “review of the Pentagon Procedures and consultations with the Bureau of Personal Management.”
He said the department deals with sensitive issues and national security issues, so “we had to be careful about that.”
The directive from Hegseth comes when federal employees start receiving a second version of the same OPM email.
Musk faced pushbacks from several agency managers last week. He instructed employees not to respond to emails from hr@opm.gov.
Musk defended his email at the first meeting of President Trump's cabinet on Wednesday, demanding that all federal workers report their achievements to his office, calling it a “pulse check,” and saying that anyone with heartbeat and neurons can complete it.
The first OPM email directive raised a question about how to review your email. Hegseth touched on the issue of his video.
“We take that into consideration, we make sure we are as focused as possible and adjusted as possible to find out how we streamline our workforce.
