DOD civilians get new instructions on DOGE-inspired productivity reports

Starting next week, Pentagon leadership will no longer require civilian employees to submit five-bullet point emails spotlighting their previous week’s accomplishments, according to an internal, unclassified email viewed by DefenseScoop on Tuesday.

However, workers are being tasked to submit another round of ideas for eliminating waste and inefficiencies, via an online survey.

The new instructions come nearly three months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued the original bullet-point guidance in late February. Hegseth’s orders followed the Office of Personnel Management’s governmentwide directive, which was inspired by billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that he helped stand up at the start of the second Trump administration.

“To conclude the ‘five-bullet’ exercise, we need one last input from you,” Jules Hurst III, who is performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in the email that was sent to the civilian workforce ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

In it, Hurst directed Defense Department employees to submit “one idea that will improve the department’s efficiency or root out waste” to a digital questionnaire linked to that email, by noon EDT on Wednesday.

“It can be big or small. It can be focused on a particular program or on larger department operations. I invite you to be creative,” Hurst wrote.

The online form users are prompted to fill out asks them to “provide a one sentence description of what is wrong and what you recommend doing about it.” They’re also directed to rate the problem on a scale of 1 to 7 — to reflect the potential impact on people or possible cost savings.

“Your response is considered mandatory. Let us know one area where you see the worst inefficiency, waste, or even fraud. This could be as granular as ‘the internet doesn’t work on Tuesday’ or ‘these regulations don’t make sense’ or ’this weapons system doesn’t work,’” the survey states.

Questions about privacy implications, how DOGE and DOD leaders would be using workers’ five-bullet point email responses and what specific decisions those answers could inform have lingered since Hegseth’s directive was released in February.

While they mark the latest DOGE-aligned directions for defense officials, Hurst’s instructions do not point to new hardline data or insights about the overarching outcome of this exercise — or why it’s coming to a close now. 

“Your weekly emails have served as a reminder of the depth and breadth of the department’s mission, and of how it takes a workforce of many talents to achieve our critical national security mission,” he wrote.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on Tuesday, a defense official said: “Yes, the department has concluded the five-bullet exercise and asked employees to submit one idea that will improve the Department’s efficiency or root out waste.”

They did not provide further details about the move.