Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Sunday he is now directing all department civilian employees to respond to emails from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) asking for a recap of what they did the week prior.

In a video posted to X by the DoD, Hegseth specified that only civilian workers should reply to the email and CC their “immediate supervisors.”

The Defense Department initially told employees to "pause any response" to OPM's request for a list of their work accomplishments.

Departments with sensitive or confidential tasks, such as the FBI or Pentagon, initially told employees to ignore the order from DOGE and OPM.

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 ordered all civilian employees at the Pentagon to respond to the “pulse check” email from the OPM after initially telling workers to ignore it.

Hegseth’s directive comes after Pentagon officials instructed DoD employees not to respond to a Feb. 22 “What did you do last week?” email over concerns classified information would be shared.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Sunday he is now directing all department civilian employees to respond to emails from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) asking for a recap of what they did the week prior.

Departments with sensitive or confidential tasks, such as the FBI or Pentagon, initially told employees to ignore the order from DOGE and OPM.

The Defense Department initially told employees to "pause any response" to OPM's request for a list of their work accomplishments.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has directed all department civilian employees to respond to emails from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to list their achievements in the past week.

A week after the Pentagon ordered employees not to respond to an email that originated from Elon Musk asking them to justify their employment, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a change of course on Sunday.