Every year, government agencies read the same engagement survey results — and every year, almost nothing changes. This article reveals it was never really about the paycheck. It breaks down how rigid promotion structures, zero-tolerance error cultures, and reward-with-more-work patterns quietly push good employees out the door, backed by a 59-study meta-analysis on public sector turnover. You’ll learn why exhaustion outweighs pay as a predictor of turnover, how leadership routinely misreads exit data, and what has to change before the next survey cycle repeats the same story.