Defense Department leaders reversed course this week and ordered all employees to respond to billionaire Elon Musk’s controversial “what did you do last week?” email by the middle of next week.
In a memo to all civilian defense employees, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that all staff members will receive a new request for a five-point summation of their weekly accomplishments on March 3. Workers will have 48 hours to reply.
Those civilian employees who do not receive the email are reportedly not expected to be impacted by the order.
“Submissions must exclude classified or sensitive information and will be incorporated into weekly situation reports by supervisors,” the memo stated. “Non-compliance may lead to further review.”
Earlier this month, more than 2 million federal workers received a note from the Office of Personnel Management demanding a five-point email of their accomplishments to justify their continued employment.
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That same day, Musk — who has an undefined leadership role within President Donald Trump’s new administration — posted on social media that failure by workers to respond to the email by Monday evening “will be taken as resignation.”
The move drew confusion and concern among federal worker groups, lawmakers and outside advocates. Numerous agencies — including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI — initially instructed staffers not to reply to the message.
Leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs did order employees to participate in the review, as did several other agencies.
The reversal by Hegseth comes just a day after a federal judge ruled that OPM officials do not have the authority to dismiss probationary workers, despite proclamations by the agency already terminating more than 30,000 federal employees’ contracts.
Whether the five-point work summaries will be used for future layoffs is unclear.
Earlier this month, more than 100 House Democratic lawmakers called the dismissal threat by Musk “reckless, cruel, unlawful and unenforceable.”
In the memo, Hegseth wrote the defense civilian workforce “remains vital to the department’s mission.”
But he has already signaled that leaders plan to cull more than 5,000 positions from that workforce in coming weeks, if not more. Worldwide, the department employs more than 750,000 civilians, according to federal records.
Military personnel are exempt from replying to the workplace review memo.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
