2026 Federal Employee Exit Survey - Open Now through xxxxx

 

Our colleagues at the Accountability and Reform Research Consortium have partnered with civil service support organizations, including former federal workers, to develop the 2026 Federal Employee Exit Survey. IFPTE invites all former civil servants in our community to participate in this confidential survey. Your participation will provide invaluable information about the circumstances of your departure, what your absence means for federal capacity, and how this moment has affected you personally. Your feedback will help create a critically important historical record while also informing future efforts to support the civil service.

For more information about the survey and to learn about the researchers leading this work, please read on. The survey is now open, and will close on (date). Thank you to all who will take the time to participate in this valuable research. 


Sincerely,
IFPTE

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Additional Information 

Purpose of the research: This survey seeks to find out more about the causes of recent departures from U.S. federal service and their potential effects on federal capacity.
 

Study Procedures: The survey should take about 16-20 minutes to complete, though optional modules may take 5-8 minutes each. Note that you may skip any question you so choose. In order to skip some questions, you might need to select an explicit "Refuse" option. If such an option is absent, you may leave the question blank; in these cases, you may receive a request to complete any unanswered questions, but you will be able to continue the survey without answering them.

Partners: This study is being conducted by the Principal Investigators (see below) in conjunction with the Accountability and Reform Research Consortium (ARRC) and its partners. More information about ARRC can be found here: https://www.volckeralliance.org/initiatives/accountability-and-reform-research-consortium-arrc

Confidentiality: All records from this study will be kept confidential. Some partner organizations are helping distribute the survey, and we may record which invitation link you used (to understand recruitment channels), but we do not share individual survey responses with partner organizations—partners receive only aggregated summaries of responses that came through their link. Survey results will be analyzed by ARRC's academic researchers and reported publicly, while partner-specific organizational results are for internal partner use only. Please do not include names of individuals or any restricted/classified information in open-ended responses. The results of the survey will be reported as aggregate statistics so that the identities of individual survey respondents cannot be inferred; work units with extremely small numbers of respondents will combined or otherwise anonymized to prevent identification of respondents. Research records will be stored securely in locked file cabinets and/or on encrypted, password-protected computers. The research team will be the only persons who will have access to the survey data.

Benefit and Risk: We are doing this study to identify individual factors that are associated with departures from federal service. The only risks associated with participation in this study are consequences that might result from unauthorized use or theft of the survey responses. The research team conducting the study has taken all necessary precautions to minimize the risk of accidental disclosure or theft of data, and your name will not be associated in any way with the published research findings. It is possible, however, with electronic communications, that through intent or accident someone other than the intended recipient may see your response. If so, there is a slight possibility that the information you provide might be used in a way that could damage your reputation or be leaked to your former co-workers or superiors. For this reason, you are not required to answer any questions. You may skip any questions or terminate the survey at any time without a penalty.
 

Compensation: Participants in this survey will not receive any compensation.

Whom to contact with questions: 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: 
Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director of the MPA Program
University of Pittsburgh
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
230 S. Bouquet Street
3802 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
Email: geh41@pitt.edu

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
William G. Resh, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Public Management and Policy
Georgia State University
Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
456 Andrew Young School
55 Park Place, NE
Suite 456
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Email: wresh@gsu.edu

This research has been approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board (study number XXXXXX). A link to the PDF of the approval is here: LINK

If you have questions regarding your rights as a research subject, or if problems arise which you do not feel you can discuss with the Investigators, please contact the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board Human Subjects Protections Advocate at 1-866-212-2668.

By continuing with this survey, I confirm that:

  • I understand this is a voluntary research study

  • I may skip any question or stop at any time

  • I will not include names or restricted information in text responses

  • I consent to participate in this research


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