Salgo: Public servants are happy in their work. But can they meet Carney’s new demands?
By Karl Salgo, Associate and Executive Advisor
Published in the Ottawa Citizen on July 3, 2025
According to the latest Public Service Employee Survey, 77 per cent of public servants responded positively to the statement ‘overall I like my job.’ That’s a good start. Is it enough?
Yes, the Phoenix system is still a frustration for public servants, but, overall, the bureaucrats are a contented bunch. Photo by Justin Tang /THE CANADIAN PRESS
Earlier this year, I suggested in an Ottawa Citizen column that a tough economic and fiscal environment might not make this the best time for public servants to whine about their jobs. Since then, Canada has elected a new prime minister with an ambitious — one might almost say transformative — agenda, and he in turn has named a new head of the public service committed to ensuring that Canada’s bureaucrats deliver on that agenda. The word on the street is that there will be some new faces at the top and not much tolerance for those who don’t deliver.
Fortunately, the results of the most recent Public Service Employee Survey (PSES), conducted in 2024 and just released, don’t disclose much whining. While job satisfaction among federal bureaucrats is down from COVID days, the large majority of public servants like and are proud of their work, at least on a level comparable to that of other Canadians.
I know I’m painting with a broad brush. But I’m comparing PSES results to studies of Canadian workers as a whole, compiled at roughly the same time by Statistics Canada and the widely used ADP Canada Happiness at Work Index (HAWI). While these surveys all use different methodologies and sample sizes (e.g., close to 190,000 for the PSES versus 1,200 monthly for the HAWI), for the most part they compare oranges to oranges.
According to the PSES, 77 per cent of public servants responded positively to the statement “overall I like my job.” This is consistent with StatsCan’s report that 80 per cent of Canadian workers, both government and non-government, rated their jobs seven or higher on a scale of zero to 10, with an identical average rating of 7.7 out of 10. The overall HAWI score for Canadian employees, arrived at somewhat differently, was lower, at 7.0, but broadly in the same ballpark.
What’s more, public servants generally take a lot of pride in their work, with 82 per cent saying they’re proud of what they do — down from 86 per cent in 2020 but still impressive. Most also report a high level of satisfaction with their immediate supervisors, 80 per cent being satisfied with the supervision they receive. And perhaps not surprisingly, job security does not emerge as a big issue for most of them, although this is probably not the case for term and casual workers.
PS frustrations highlighted
These things said, the PSES highlights a fair number of frustrations that the new government should fix if it wants to deliver on its agenda. Of course, there are specific issues such as access to language training and endless woes with the Phoenix pay system. But I’m talking mostly about concerns that are more systemic, cultural and longstanding. For example, large numbers of government employees struggle with complex business processes (think procurement and staffing); excessive approval stages; and constantly changing priorities, with roughly 70 per cent finding these to be problems at least some of the time.
Unreliable technology is reportedly at least sometimes a problem for close to 60 per cent of respondents. And with only 55 per cent of employees feeling that their organizations do a good job supporting career development, you have to wonder if the government is getting the most out of its people.
Another systemic issue is that, despite positive reviews of their immediate supervisors, only 55 per cent of respondents have confidence in senior management, down from an already unimpressive 68 per cent in 2020. Just 47 per cent believe that senior management makes effective and timely decisions; a similarly low number believes that information flows effectively in their organizations, and even fewer believe that change is managed well.
The consistent decline in positive responses since what might be described as a mini-golden age during COVID raises interesting questions. It may partly relate to back-to-office mandates, which some readers will characterize as whining. While the great majority of public servants whose work can be conducted remotely are now in hybrid situations, this compares to just 24 per cent of the overall Canadian workforce who have either hybrid or fully remote arrangements (a full comparison would require looking at the kind of work being done).
However, I suspect that other factors are also at play. First, in 2022 many respondents were new hires and presumably pretty enthusiastic. Second, the relatively innovative working environment during COVID would have been exciting for many workers.
There are other stories to be told about the public sector workplace. One is different generational experiences. Another is different results across organizations. Further study may help identify some best (and worst) government practices.
In the meantime, does the survey suggest that federal public sector employees are braced to support the prime minister’s agenda? I’ve always thought that public servants are keen, and deliberate foot-dragging is rare. The delivery problem is about how bureaucracy operates. With so many workers who are new to their jobs in the last five years, the government faces a challenge — but also an opportunity if it is as innovative about how public servants work as about what they’re working on.