The federal workforce is facing a sea of challenges as a significant number of employees, including 105,000 feds, retire. This trend has sparked concerns about the pipeline of future leaders and the potential impact on mission delivery and service provision to the American people. Andy's story is a familiar one for many executives leaving federal service. After leaving earlier this year, he found a position in the private sector, only to discover a mismatch in expectations. The role he was hired for didn't align with his policy-level expertise, and the company was looking for a more technical, tactical-level contributor. This experience is not unique; hundreds of federal executives are expected to share similar stories over the next year. The numbers are telling: there are 551 fewer Senior Executive Service (SES) members in 2026 than in 2025, and the pipeline of future leaders at the GS-14 and GS-15 levels is also shrinking. The reduction in employees at these levels is concerning, as it erases years of growth and puts stress on leaders who are already managing multiple roles. Concerns over the impending retirement wave are not new, but the combination of retirements, employees taking the deferred resignation program, and people quitting is causing more worry than ever. The effect of this is it puts stress on the leaders. It makes it difficult to focus on mission delivery. If you’re having a tough time focusing on mission delivery, it makes it difficult to provide services to the American people. It also creates a stressful situation and leads to burnout because leaders are in a position where it’s difficult to lead effectively when you’re trying to manage daily operations, doing multiple roles yourself, and then you’re expected to lead teams and manage programs and make sure that you meet the needs of the agencies. The reduction of senior leaders isn’t all that different than what agencies saw across the board last year. There are 219,000 fewer federal employees in 2025 than in 2024. Interestingly enough, OPM says the median age of the federal worker remains at 47 years old, but the percentage of federal employees who are eligible to retire dropped to 13.5% from 15%. The Small Business Administration and NASA have the largest percentage of employees, more than 25% respectively, who are eligible to retire. OPM says 105,858 retired from federal service in 2025. The Defense Department saw the largest number of employees leave via retirement at 31,689, while the departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Justice, Treasury and Health and Human Services all saw more than 6,000 employees leave via retirement. For those executives jumping on the wave of leaving federal service, the private sector may be just as challenging. But the experiences of Andy and others demonstrate what executives need to consider as they move into industry. The job market is flooded, and it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new opportunity. But it's crucial to ensure the right fit. The biggest mistake people make is negotiating the title before understanding the business. If you don’t know how the company makes money, who buys from them and where they are hurting, you are walking in blind. Don’t accept roles with vague charters. If no one can clearly explain what success looks like in six months, that role probably will not last six months. Trust your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.
