Negative effects on employee well-being as a result of staff cuts are widely hypothesized in the literature, although empirical evidence is still quite limited. This study attempts to determine whether budget cuts and downsizing in the affected departments have had the same impact on Canadian federal public servants’ job satisfaction as is suggested in the literature. Budget cuts were rarely added to staff reductions. The results show that budget cuts negatively impact the attitudes of federal employees at a 10 % threshold, but only marginally. Overall, a slight decrease in job satisfaction was observed, whereas the theory predicted more dissatisfaction. In future episodes of austerity, parametric budget or workforce cuts of five percent could be maintained in order to minimize adverse impacts on federal civil servants’ job satisfaction.