22 MAY-JUNE 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL TALKING POINTS Survey Finds Federal Workforce Demoralized A report released this month by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service (PPS) paints a stark picture of federal employee morale in the first year of the second Trump administration, with a governmentwide engagement and satisfaction score of just 32 out of 100. The report, “Federal Public Service in Peril,” is based on the organization’s new Public Service Viewpoint Survey, which was conducted between November and December 2025 and drew responses from 11,083 career federal employees across government. Having produced “The Best Place to Work in the Federal Government” rankings since 2003, PPS created this new survey after the Office of Personnel Management canceled the 2025 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) in August. That cancellation was a violation of the 2010 statutory requirement that agencies survey their workforces annually. Only 7.5 percent of respondents agreed that political leaders generate high levels of motivation in the workforce, and 36.5 percent reported that their work units are providing worse quality services than the year before. Agency-level scores varied but were uniformly low, with the State Department scoring a 20.1 out of 100. The report notes that the survey results are not directly comparable with historical FEVS data due to methodological differences and should be interpreted accordingly. Nonetheless, the findings represent the most comprehensive available assessment of federal workforce conditions during this period. Visit bestplacestowork.org for the full report. State to Remove Pre-2025 Posts from X The State Department will remove from public view all posts made on its official X accounts before President Trump returned to office on January 20, 2025, according to NPR reporting on February 7. The deleted posts will be archived internally but will no longer be publicly accessible. Staff were reportedly informed that individuals seeking access to older posts would need to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The directive applies to the department’s active official accounts, including those of U.S. embassies, ambassadors, bureaus, and programs. Current and former diplomats and outside observers have raised concerns that removing years of posts that range from policy statements, embassy events, and cultural programming could make it harder for the public to trace the historical record of U.S. diplomacy. Scrambling into Crisis Mode The current military operation involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran has reshaped the operating environment for U.S. diplomats across the Middle East and beyond. It has also raised questions about the state of contingency planning at the State Department. For members of the U.S. Foreign Service, the unfolding crisis highlighted the core responsibilities and pressures of diplomacy in wartime: safeguarding personnel, coordinating emergency departures, assisting U.S. citizens abroad, and maintaining mission operations under volatile conditions. Yet as airspace closures, missile attacks, and protests spread across the region, U.S. embassies and consulates were caught up in the danger, with family members, including children, still at posts when the United States and Israel initiated hostilities. Several embassies and consulates were hit in the early days of the conflict even as their employees were struggling to organize evacuations of their own family members and expatriates in their area. According to a March 11 story in The New York Times, at least 11 U.S. government facilities were damaged, including embassies in Riyadh and Kuwait City and the consulate in Dubai. Damage to both embassies is reportedly extensive, with structures being burned to the ground or severely damaged. Embassy Kuwait suspended its Talking Points offers a snapshot of recent developments affecting the Foreign Service. The following items were finalized for publication on March 23, 2026. Look at the negotiations in just the last couple of weeks [with Ukraine and Russia, Gaza ceasefire, with Iran]. The Foreign Service was not present at any of those. Not just not in the pictures—not in the room. That has never happened before in 102 years. —Ambassador Nicholas Burns at a March 6 event hosted by the U.S.-China Education Trust and George Washington University. Contemporary Quote
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