Pentagon ends “What did you do last week?” email requirement for civilians

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Pentagon ends “What did you do last week?” email requirement for civilians

The Pentagon is no longer requiring civilian employees to send emails listing out five things they accomplished each week, winding down an initiative driven partly by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The five-bullet-point email requirement ended on Wednesday, according to the Defense Department, and employees were instructed to send a final email identifying one specific thing the Pentagon could cut to root out waste. 

“This initiative provided leaders and supervisors with additional insights into their employees’ contributions, fostered accountability, and helped to identify opportunities for greater efficiency and effectiveness throughout the Department,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement announcing the end of the initiative.  

Earlier this year, employees across the government received emails with the subject line “What did you do last week?” Musk, the Trump administration cost-cutting czar who led DOGE,

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any non-responses “will be taken as a resignation.”

The Defense Department back in February initially told employees to pause responding to the emails, but then reissued guidance directing civilian employees to respond. Non-civilian employees weren’t required to participate.

In a video telling civilian employees to respond, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “It’s a simple task, as Elon [Musk] said, as the president recognized in our first cabinet meeting, just a pulse check, ‘are you there?’ out to DoD civilians.” 

The emails were part of the Trump administration’s initiative to cut down the size of the federal civilian workforce. 

As part of those sweeping changes, Hegseth has directed the Pentagon to cut 5-8% of civilian employees. With over 900,000 civilians working for the Defense Department, that could mean over 50,000 employees eventually leave the agency.

The Defense Department has offered employees the option to leave later this year as part of the Deferred Resignation Program and is working through how many employees will leave as a result, with the option to deny resignations of mission-critical staff. 

Eleanor Watson

Eleanor Watson is a CBS News multi-platform reporter and producer covering the Pentagon.

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