The Pentagon told employees on Sunday not to respond to an email from the Office of Personnel Management instructing them to list their work accomplishments.
"For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled 'What did you do last week,'" the Defense Department wrote in a statement to civilian employees that was posted on X.
"The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures," said the statement, which was attributed to Darin S. Selnick, who's performing the duties of the defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness.
It added that the Pentagon would handle responses to the email request.
The email, which Elon Musk announced in a post on X, asked federal employees to respond by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday with five achievements from last week.
"Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments," the email, which was sent to employees in federal agencies across the US, said.
It came just after President Donald Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social that he wanted Musk to "get more aggressive" in cutting workers and expenses from the federal bureaucracy.
Musk, who's closely linked to the DOGE office, said in his X post that a "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Other security-related government departments — including the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — did not respond to requests for comment.
Representatives for the State Department and the FBI declined to comment on the DOGE email.
