'Outrageous': Fort Gregg-Adams, other DoD employees being asked to bullet-point their jobs

‘Outrageous’: Fort Gregg-Adams, other DoD employees being asked to bullet-point their jobs

Posted by author March 3, 2025 Jobs

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has mandated that all DoD civilian employees submit a list of their top five work accomplishments from the previous week.
Hegseth claims the measure is intended to refocus the department on its core mission, but critics like Rep. Jennifer McClellan argue it’s a politically motivated attempt to undermine and demoralize the civilian workforce.
The directive, initially met with resistance from some departments, has been softened to a voluntary request, though Hegseth still urges employees to comply.
This initiative is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to reduce the federal budget, including payroll, with the Department of Government Efficiency leading the charge.

As Fort Gregg-Adams’ civilian employees prepare to answer the Defense Department’s question, “What are five things you did last week?” the area’s congressional representative is blasting the move, calling it “outrageous” and calling the defense secretary orchestrating the emails “the most unqualified” to ever hold the position.

On Monday, the Prince George County post’s 5,200 civil servants will join their colleagues across DoD in receiving an email from the department asking them to bullet-point their five top work accomplishments from the week of Feb. 24-28. In a video released Sunday by DoD, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said responding to the email within 48 hours of getting it will demonstrate their importance to the DoD mission.

“As we work to restore focus on DoD’s core warfighting mission under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we recognize that we cannot accomplish that mission without the strong and important contributions of our civilian workforce,” Hegseth says in the video.

Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Virginia, whose district includes Fort Gregg-Adams, is not buying that claim

“It is outrageous that the most unqualified Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, asks dedicated and apolitical civil servants working tirelessly at the DoD to keep our country safe to prove their productivity while he and the Trump Administration undermine our national security,” McClellan, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Progress-Index over the weekend.

What are the employees being asked?

Hegseth’s directive, which he signed last Friday, tells employees they can “expect” an email from DoD when they arrive at work Monday. The email instructs the employees to list five accomplishments they completed in their job last week and submit their responses by the close of business Wednesday to their supervisors.

The messages should not contain classified or sensitive information, DoD says.

The responses, Hegseth said in the video, will be consolidated internally within the department based on directives from the Trump administration, whose Department of Government Efficiency is spearheading the efforts to oversee reducing the federal budget including payroll. DOGE tried to get the emails sent last week but was thwarted after the departments of State and Justice told their employees to disregard the messages.

Late last week, the Office of Personnel Management softened the original stance of the policy from mandated to voluntary – even though Hegseth said in the video that the email was something “Defense Department employees should respond to.”

Any civilian worker without email access was told to work with their immediate supervisor to get their bullet points in by the deadline. Any employee out of the office during the week will submit responses within 48 hours of their return to work.

Democrats have decried the move, saying the administration was playing politics with a workforce that is supposed to be nonpartisan.

McClellan said the memo was part of a Trump package that included “purging the military’s best and brightest leadership and lawyers, parroting [Russian president Vladmir Putin talking points, and halting all Russia-related cybersecurity operational planning.”

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.