Morale among civilian staff at the Defence Department has been soured by nearly three years of stalled pay negotiations and a perceived lack of leadership, respect and communication.
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Research released under freedom of information laws reveals public servants are more likely to be dissatisfied with pay and working conditions than ADF personnel, who have a separate agreement.
The latest report presented to Defence management in March found low morale had been a major influence on many public servants leaving the department since 2013.
The YourSay research shows morale was lowest in 2015 when 27 per cent of APS respondents were actively looking for jobs outside the department, compared to 10 per cent in 2013.
Almost half of the APS workforce described workplace morale as "low" or "very low" in February 2015, compared to 34 per cent in 2013. The majority of remaining respondents considered morale to be "moderate" while only 16 per cent considered it "high" or "very high".
One-fifth of respondents said the employment conditions and stalled pay negotiations were to blame.
"Not back-paying even though it's the government's fault DECA negotiations are so late and slow," one respondent said. "The threat of no or low pay rises... We have had enough."
The department's 18,000 public servants rejected a revised pay deal by a margin of nearly 55 per cent in May, one month after rejecting an earlier proposal.
Half of respondents said there were insufficient resources within the department with staff overworked with higher duties after the size of the workforce was trimmed from 2013.
Between September 2015 and February 2016, 1095 APS staff left the department with 246 taking voluntary redundancies. More than 505 executive-level staff separated during this period.
The 2015 research revealed Defence has been concerned about morale for many years, with management advised to "reduce the work program to keep in line with falling staff numbers".
"APS workplace morale was found to have declined over the past two years, in contrast with the permanent ADF which has improved over the same time," the report said.
"The association of workplace morale with employee engagement, productivity, resilience, organisational commitment and retention provides a basis for Defence to invest in improving workplace morale."
Poor leadership was identified as a cause for low morale with comments from public servants citing poor planning, a lack of direction and clarity of roles and micro-management.
Confusion about organisation restructures and downsizing caused confusion and motivation issues for some staff. Others blamed "a lack of respect, a lack of fairness and a non-inclusive environment" for low morale.
One public servant said job cuts seemed to have no clear structure or plan and blamed communication from management.
"The process is haphazard and disorganised at the management level, hence everything that flows from that such as communication is haphazard, conflicting, disorganised and not conducive to good morale in the interim period which will likely stretch for many years," the report said.
Morale was highest among Navy personnel with 82 per cent of respondents reporting a moderate or positive atmosphere earlier this year, followed by Army and Airforce.
