Gallup recently reported that employees in the US are as dissatisfied now as they were during the post-pandemic ‘Great Resignation’, only this time they aren't quitting. This new trend - the Great Detachment - presents a unique management challenge for leaders.
In short, it’s an engagement crisis, caused by feelings of stagnation and disconnection at work and in some cases, significant budget cuts in training and development due to post-pandemic economic uncertainty.
People are mentally checking out. Just over half (51%) are eyeing up the job boards. But they’re not actually quitting. They’re still turning up, they’re still being paid, but they’re not giving you anywhere near their best.
This stagnation may have as much to do with the job market and lack of attractive opportunities to escape the status quo than the job itself. Many pandemic era layoff survivors are demoralized, overworked and overstretched, but they can’t currently see a way out.
The depressing part is that (according to the Gallup report) a remarkable 45% of US workers are saying that they “never had a constructive conversation with their bosses in which they could express dissatisfaction and their feelings”.
Why not? We’re human. We want and need participation, recognition, and feedback.
Why your organizational culture might be the problem
And although it’s one of Gallup’s cited factors (see the box below) for detachment, we can’t completely blame remote working for lack of connection and healthy conversations.
A positive workplace (hybrid, online or in-person) culture must include conversations that feed our need for belonging and knowing we’ve made a useful contribution. And that’s not just annual appraisals, but an ongoing team culture of appreciation, collaboration and connectedness.
Some reports favour the theory that the detachment problem is more prevalent among Gen Z, because they do everything online and may be less familiar with in-person collaboration and less equipped to navigate important conversations or the nuances of more challenging interpersonal relationships at work.
In turn, it affects their ability to engage fully with different team members who may have very different styles or mindsets.
The reality is that there is detachment across the generations. Gallup’s research shows that employee stress, worry, anger and sadness are all at historically elevated levels and not unique to one group.
Then there’s change fatigue. Persistent enforced change can drain people and make them feel less engaged. We wrote about this here a few months ago. It remains as prevalent as ever. Yet as the impact of AI continues to grow and continues to change how we’re required to work, change won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
That part we simply need to get used to, and make sure our teams are open to it, and mentally ready for it. That part does, of course, come more easily to some than others. See our introverts and change article here.
According to Gallup, seven in 10 employees say their organization has experienced disruptive change in the past year. Managers report disruption from the restructuring of teams (55%) and additional job responsibilities for employees (69%), while nearly half (46%) report budget cuts.
Consequently, many managers are tasked with stabilizing disrupted teams and onboarding new employees while navigating a tighter budget.
The Great Detachment theory follows various studies about disengagement and disconnection (read our collaboration helps loneliness article here).
Only last year, McKinsey research showed that a third of US workers are disengaged and doing the bare minimum. They concluded that employee disengagement and attrition could cost a median-size S&P 500 company between $228m and $355m a year in lost productivity. Hardly a recipe for organisational success.
As well as commonplace concerns about compensation, reasons cited included lack of work flexibility, lack of career development, unreliable people and an (psychologically) unsafe work environment.
Fact: Unreliable leaders and managers exist in most organisations...
They may be inspiring, convincing, strong individuals capable of running a complex business and their intentions may be good (unless they’re disengaged themselves), but if they don’t motivate and gain the trust of detached employees and create a psychologically safe environment for feedback and concerns, they’re not entirely reliable as bosses or colleagues.
The Great Detachment certainly suggests that organizations who neglected professional and team development programmes post-pandemic are starting to feel the impact. Self-directed, self-development tools or simply offering workers chunks of time to improve their technical or interpersonal skills will not make a team more effective by themselves.
How can team leaders and managers re-engage, reassure and motivate detached workers?
They can start by understanding what would help their team members show up with more enthusiasm, purpose and commitment. To do that, they need to understand what makes each team member tick. Not everyone comes to work with the same values, goals or mindset. It helps to identify what coming to work, at least in their organization and role, means for different people.
Even in tumultuous times, when organizations are running to stand still amidst persistent change, leaders still need to understand and address what people need in order to show up ‘in full’.
More to the point, labour market conditions will inevitably shift again. While turnover numbers may have slowed for now, employee productivity concerns and future talent loss are hidden organizational risks. Mobility may improve sooner than expected, and when it does, you want your valued, talented employees to prefer to stay working with you than to jump ship.
Gallup’s research highlights five changes at work that increase employee disengagement:
1. Rapid organizational change: The post-2020 workplace has been shaped by constant upheaval, from record turnover during the “Great Resignation” to team restructurings, budget cuts, and shifting job responsibilities. Three out of four employees report experiencing disruptive change in the past year. Managers find great difficulty balancing stability, onboarding, and limited resources.
2. Hybrid and remote work growing pains: While flexible work arrangements are here to stay, they bring communication and coordination challenges. Remote workers often feel less connected to their organization’s mission, while hybrid models create fragmented team dynamics.
3. Evolving customer expectations: The pandemic has increased demands for faster and more digital customer experiences. Over half of employees have noticed changes in customer behavior, with many citing higher expectations and intensifying pressure to deliver.
4. Shifts in employee expectations: Employees are now more vocal about seeking better work-life balance, competitive compensation, and the flexibility to choose remote work. Yet, when organizations fail to align with these new expectations, employees feel undervalued and unsure of their future.
5. Broken performance management Practices: Performance reviews are no longer working to inspire or guide employees. With unclear role expectations and insufficient recognition, employees feel lost, especially in a workplace already disrupted by economic and cultural shifts.
