As President Donald Trump accelerates his push to slash the civilian workforce, less than half of the federal workers who voted for him think he will improve the ability of their agency to fulfill its mission, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll. Still, a majority of them approve of his job performance in general.
Federal workers think Trump won’t improve their agencies. Even his voters.
A Post-Ipsos poll finds a majority of current federal workers believe most of Trump’s executive orders affecting their agency are illegal.
March 19, 2025 The Washington Post
Federal workers overall predict Trump will worsen the government’s service to ordinary Americans and say their workplace satisfaction has tanked, according to the poll of more than 600 federal workers nationwide conducted from Feb. 28 to March 10. The survey offers the first comprehensive look at government employee sentiment since he returned to the Oval Office.
Fifty-seven percent of current federal workers believe most or all of Trump’s executive orders affecting their agency are illegal. Seventy-one percent of federal workers are concerned that the government may not be able to function if large numbers of federal workers are laid off.
“To be so sh--ty to the people who are supposed to be implementing your agenda, and to treat us the way we’ve been treated, it’s just ridiculous,” said an Air Force veteran and longtime Defense Department employee who voted for Trump three times.
She said she used to think the department was a great place to work and was proud to serve her country. Then came the mandate to be in the office five days a week, which made caring for her disabled child more difficult, she said. Then the “Fork in the Road” offer and the request that she send five bullet points summarizing her weekly accomplishments.
“Totally patronizing,” she said.
As billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service expands its reach, more than twice as many federal workers say his team is mainly cutting necessary programs (52 percent) rather than wasteful spending (24 percent).
“Yes, the government can be more efficient. But we didn’t vote for this,” said the employee, who, like other survey respondents interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “We didn’t vote for Elon Musk.”
The Post-Ipsos poll of 614 civilian federal workers included responses from across the country, from postal workers in Florida to Veterans Affairs employees in the Midwest and data programmers in the D.C. region. The survey also included people who were employed by the federal government at the beginning of January but have been laid off or resigned.
Among federal workers who are registered to vote, 51 percent say they voted for Kamala Harris last year, 38 percent for Trump.
There has been a sharp drop in job satisfaction in the federal workforce since Trump returned to the Oval Office.
Nearly 9 in 10 federal workers, 89 percent, say that their agency was a good place to work over the past few years. Just 11 percent say it was “bad.”
Going forward, 31 percent say their agency will be a “bad” place to work. Just over a third of current federal workers, 36 percent, say they are “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their jobs, compared with 68 percent who say they were satisfied with their work over the past few years.
Double-digit declines are seen among almost all demographic groups, but the falloff is more precipitous among Harris voters, liberals and workers with postgraduate degrees.
“I went into public service because I am dedicated to supporting the American people. Right now, we are not able to do that,” said an employee with 25 years of service at the Agriculture Department. “Programs are being paused. Decades of precedent are being ignored. Rules are being broken.”
The agency, he said, previously benefited from bipartisan support.
“Now we feel abandoned — abandoned by Congress, by both parties,” said the employee, a Democrat. “Farmers and agricultural workers are the backbone of the nation. That should be almost a sacred part of government.”
Most federal workers feel frustrated, scared and angry, according to the survey. About a third feel hopeful. Less than a quarter feel enthusiastic.
Still, they overwhelmingly say they are proud of their work in recent years (95 percent), that it benefits the country (89 percent) and that they wouldn’t voluntarily leave.
Despite most disapproving of Trump’s performance and predicting he will worsen the way the federal government operates, 81 percent of workers say they are unlikely to voluntarily leave their positions in the next year.
Most feel their jobs are secure, with just over a third saying it is likely they will be removed from their positions. More than 6 in 10 say it is not likely. Republican employees and those who voted for Trump are more likely to say their jobs are probably safe compared with Democrats and Harris voters.
“This is still a good way to build a career,” said Patty Greaves, a 74-year-old postmaster and Trump supporter in New Jersey. She joined the U.S. Postal Service in 2001, fresh from a divorce.
“I had no skills. I had to do something to support myself,” Greaves said. “I’ll keep going until I can’t anymore.”
About a fifth of current government workers say they’re actively looking for another job.
As Musk enacts a massive effort to shrink federal agencies, two-thirds of federal workers disapprove of the job he is doing within the federal government. That’s a higher disapproval rating than among the general public — 49 percent, according to a February Post-Ipsos poll.
And nearly as many federal workers disapprove of Trump’s performance: 63 percent to Musk’s 67 percent.
Yet nearly three-quarters of federal workers who voted for Trump approve of what Musk is doing — and more than 8 in 10 approve of Trump.
“Sometimes, as a surgeon, you have to cut to cure,” said Patrick Weitekamp, 57, a medical support assistant at a veterans hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
For years, Weitekamp said, politicians paid lip service to streamlining bureaucracy.
“One person is finally doing something about it, and people are losing their minds. I don’t get it,” he said.
“I take care of my fellow veterans every day. I take pride in what I do,” said Weitekamp, a veteran who served six years of active duty, including in Afghanistan. “If people don’t have that pride, maybe they do need to be DOGE-ed.”
Later, he said he learned that a friend and fellow veteran had lost his job because he was on probationary status. “That’s just not right,” he said.
Federal workers say their agencies are efficient with both money and personnel: About three-quarters say the funds they receive are used effectively, and over 8 in 10 say most positions at their agencies are necessary to fulfill their missions.
“If there is waste, fraud and abuse, we would’ve fixed it,” said a longtime Commerce Department employee who voted for Harris and considers himself an independent. “The inspector general does their job. We are audited. We have budgets — tight budgets.”
Workers who voted for Trump are more optimistic, but not universally so: About 7 in 10 think he will improve the way the federal government works in Washington, but less than half think he will improve the ability of their agency to fulfill its mission.
Overall, 37 percent of federal workers think Trump will do a better job ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent effectively, but 49 percent say he will make that worse.
If large numbers of federal workers are laid off, more than 7 in 10 say they are concerned it will hinder their agency’s ability to accomplish its mission and diminish institutional knowledge.
The Commerce Department employee said that while the agency has long enjoyed bipartisan support, anxiety is seeping in.
“The fear is that they are trying to make it so bad to work here so they can privatize it,” he said. “They are just going to torture you until you quit.”
Among the administration’s most sweeping efforts to slash the workforce was the deferred resignation program, which encouraged employees to resign with the promise of pay through September. Most workers say they received the Fork in the Road offer, and 2 percent accepted it.
But more than 6 in 10 federal workers do not expect the administration to honor the offer.
The Washington Post-Ipsos poll was conducted Feb. 28-March 10, 2025, among 614 civilian federal workers as of Jan. 1, 2025. The survey was conducted online via the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. Results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.