The Defense Department’s civilian employees can expect a second email asking them to lay out what they did the previous week—and this time, they must respond, the defense secretary said in a Thursday memo to his workforce.
The 189-word memo—Defense One obtained a copy—aims to avert a repeat of the confusion and stress imposed last Saturday by an unexpected tweet from billionaire Elon Musk and an email from the Office of Personnel Management, both of which demanded that the federal government’s two million-plus employees describe their work accomplishments of the past week’s work in an email, by Monday at midnight.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” Musk said in his tweet.
The demand blindsided the workers—and their agency heads, who scrambled to figure out how to respond. By Sunday, the Defense Department and several other agencies had decided to tell their workforces to disregard Musk’s email.
But, Hegseth writes, a new “What You Did Last Week” email is expected from OPM on Monday, and this time, he has decided that DOD civilians must comply.
Workers must reply to the OPM email with “five bullets on their previous week’s achievements” and copy their supervisor, Hegseth wrote.
“Submissions must exclude classified or sensitive information and will be incorporated
into weekly situation reports by supervisors. Non-compliance may lead to further review.
Employees currently without email access due to leave, shift work, temporary duty, or
other valid reasons must comply within 48 hours of regaining access. Managers of those who do not regularly work in office settings with access to email, e.g. warehouses and shipyards, should address directly with their employees,” the memo continued.
A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment.
Jennifer Hlad contributed to this report.
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