The 5 best — and worst — places to work in the U.S. government, according to federal workers

Federal government workers surveyed last summer gave assessments of how satisfied they are with their jobs.

Apr 12, 2023 - 18:00

The 5 best — and worst — places to work in the U.S. government, according to federal workers

The Partnership for Public Service and the Boston Consulting Group released the findings Wednesday of their annual survey of federal government workers that assesses which agencies have strong employee morale and which could use some improvement.

Surveys were sent during the summer of 2022, when many workplaces were making or implementing decisions on whether employees should return to the office or continue working remotely.

The scores were calculated based on responses to three questions: “I recommend my organization as a good place to work.”, “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job?” and “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?”

The rankings below are for what the survey calls “large agencies,” meaning organizations with 15,000 or more employees. Findings were organized by each of the 17 large agencies' overall rank, as well as how each one fared in different categories.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has the top overall score and came in first in several categories such as pay and effective leadership, but trails behind the Intelligence Community for work-life balance.

Meanwhile, Department of Health and Human Services snagged second place in the overall rankings but was fourth place in pay and in two diversity and equity subcategories — NASA secured the top spot in those subgroups.

The Intelligence Community secured third overall, but was fifth in the performance: agency subcategory and fourth in effective leadership: supervisors. NASA again secured the top spot in both those subcategories.

The Department of Commerce placed fourth overall but was in 12th place for effective leadership: empowerment, 11th place for innovation, ninth for work-life balance and eighth for pay.

Rounding out the top five in overall rankings is the Department of Veterans Affairs. Despite the high score, the agency placed 12th for effective leadership: supervisors, 11th for work-life balance and eighth for innovation.