Federal Workforce Unhappy, Disengaged, New Survey Finds

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought reportedly said in 2023 and 2024 he wants to put federal workers “in trauma.”

He appears to have done it.

A new survey of federal workers found that, government wide, only 32 percent of the federal workforce is satisfied with and engaged in their jobs. The numbers are particularly stark at certain larger agencies: Only 20 percent of the Department of Health and Human Services staff is satisfied; along with 22.5 percent of the Treasury Department and 8.1 percent of the few employees remaining at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The findings come in the wake of the Trump administration’s dramatic efforts to reshape the federal workforce last year, including voluntary and mandatory departures, the virtual closure of major agencies such as CFPB – and former Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk’s demands that people justify their work product.

The survey, conducted late last year by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, was launched after the White House instructed the Office of Personnel Management to cancel its annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, a long-running survey tracking agency performance and workplace morale across four administrations, according to a person with knowledge of OPM’s plans and granted anonymity to discuss them. An OPM official said the survey is merely on pause and will resume later this year.

“The Trump administration is committing malpractice with its management of the federal workforce and the consequences will be an America that is less safe, less healthy and less prosperous,” said the partnership’s president, Max Stier. “Congress needs to step up its oversight and the public should pay attention to these critical issues.”

Across the government, employees’ self-reported levels of satisfaction in their jobs and engagement in their work are dramatically lower in the new survey than the federal survey found last year.

PPS’ survey covered only a fraction of the number of employees OPM was able to survey in prior years. PPS surveyed over 11,000 employees across government, none of whom took the administration’s deferred resignation program. OPM got responses from about 674,000 federal workers last year. PPS’ questions were similar – at times identical – to those asked in past OPM surveys.

OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover said the surveys can not be fairly compared.

“The Partnership’s survey, unlike the actual FEVS survey, was not conducted using government systems and reached a self-selected sample of motivated employees,” she said in a statement. “The methodology used by the Partnership was so different that there is no appropriate comparison to prior years. Our own survey at OPM did not show any ‘collapse’ in employee engagement. The FEVS survey was paused to refresh the questions and avoid prohibitive costs.”

PPS’s government-wide Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Index Score was 32 out of 100, while 58 percent of respondents said their level of engagement in their jobs has gotten worse since this time last year. The survey found no agency with an uptick.

At several large agencies — those with more than 15,000 employees — the drop off in engagement and satisfaction between this year’s PPS survey and last year’s OPM results is stark. At the Department of Commerce, the index plunged from 72.7 last year to 24.8. At the Justice Department, it dropped from 61.3 to 20.1.

And at the Social Security Administration, the score fell from 54.2 to 15.2.

At smaller agencies — those with between 1,000 and 14,999 employees — the drop off was just as eye-popping. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the index fell from 70.5 last year to 18.2, with 70.2 percent of respondents saying engagement has worsened.

The survey suggests morale has sharply eroded across agencies — and employees are blaming political leadership for what they called “chaos and fear” that is undermining agencies’ ability to deliver services. Just 7.5 percent of respondents said political leaders generate high levels of motivation in the workforce, a strikingly low figure that underscores how little confidence many federal employees have in their leadership.

Workers were asked whether they believe their organization does not tolerate “arbitrary action, favoritism, or political coercion against employees.” Last year, 56 percent expressed agreement or confidence in the statement to OPM. This year, it was sliced in half, to 25.2 percent.

Another question asked whether they feel confident they can report a suspected violation of law without retaliation. Just 22.5 percent responded with agreement or confidence, compared with 71.9 percent in the 2024 OPM report.

Of all agencies the group surveyed, perceptions of political leaders were lowest at HHS. Only 2.6 percent of employees felt that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team motivated the workforce, 2.8 percent said they were trusted and 4.2 percent felt they maintained high standards of integrity.

In a statement, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the survey “represents the views of .01% of HHS employees and should not be characterized as a reflection of the entire workforce. HHS is committed to our employees’ and professional satisfaction. Our staff are highly engaged and dedicated to our mission of improving the health and well-being of the American people.”

Kennedy’s scores were a steep drop off from one of Trump’s first term HHS secretaries, Alex Azar, whose effective leadership scores from PPS’ best places to work summary derived from OPM data, came in at 64.4 in 2020 and 55.7 in 2017.

No other agency referenced in this story responded to a request for comment.