Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum on March 2 directing all Defense Department civilian employees to prepare five bullet points detailing their work accomplishments from the prior week.
Those same employees can expect an email from the Defense Department on March 3 requesting that same information, he wrote. Within 48 hours they are expected to reply to that email, with their accomplishments included, and add their supervisors as recipients.
The responses, Hegseth said in a video statement, will be consolidated internally within the department in order to satisfy related directives from the Office of Personnel Management.
Last weekend, OPM sent a request for the same information, but the department's Office of Personnel and Readiness told employees to stand down on the request. Now that the department has worked with OPM to get more clear guidance on what is expected, Hegseth said employees can start writing their submissions.
"The Department of Defense initially paused this directive ... but now requires all DOD civilian employees to submit five bullets on their previous week's achievements," Hegseth said in his memorandum.
According to guidance from the secretary, it is an email from the Defense Department employees should respond to. That email willcome Monday, and responses to it should not include classified or sensitive information.
Additionally, Hegseth said in his memorandum that non-compliance may lead to further review.
Civilian employees who will not have email access in the 48 hours following delivery of the email due to being on leave, shift work or other reasons, are to complete the request within 48 hours of regaining access, the secretary wrote.
Additionally, civilian employees who do not typically have email access will work with their supervisors to meet the request.
In his video statement to the civilian workforce, Hegseth said civilian employees are important to the department's mission, and that submitting five bullet points about their work will support that.
"Our civilian patriots who dedicate themselves to defending this nation working for the Department of Defense are critical to our national security," he said in his video statement. "As we work to restore focus on DOD's core warfighting mission under President Trump's leadership, we recognize that we cannot accomplish that mission without the strong and important contributions of our civilian workforce."