HomeEmployee ExperienceEngagementEmployee EngagementWhy two-thirds of workers feel emotionally detached from their jobs – and how leaders can reengage them

Why two-thirds of workers feel emotionally detached from their jobs – and how leaders can reengage them

  • 4 Min Read

I think I have the best job in the world. Every few years I pick a big, knotty subject that has no obvious answers and dedicate many months trying to unpick it. The output of this, every two years or so, is a non-fiction book that attempts to summarise and explain my findings. The first […]

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I think I have the best job in the world. Every few years I pick a big, knotty subject that has no obvious answers and dedicate many months trying to unpick it. The output of this, every two years or so, is a non-fiction book that attempts to summarise and explain my findings.

The first big topic I chose, right before the pandemic, was why some businesses succeed and others fail. There are lots of varying factors, but after speaking to hundreds of companies I narrowed it down to the strength of the relationship that some of them have with their customers and staff. The findings became my first book, Cult Status.

A few years later I tackled the ethereal subject of creativity, guided by the unshakeable belied that everyone is creative. I spent time trying to systemise a process that’s often treated like magic so anyone can learn how to find, grab hold of and massage an idea until it’s truly brilliant. That became my second book, Killer Thinking.

But the knottiest topic I’ve ever attempted to wrangle is the future of work, and where our workplaces are heading. For the last few years I travelled the world, spoke with dozens of leading experts, interviewed many dozens more, and read countless research papers on happiness, meaning and engagement at work to write my latest book, Work Backwards. And by the end of the process, I was pretty disillusioned.

No matter which way you look at, many independent studies on the way we are working are all flashing amber, warning us that many of the signs of a healthy workplace, from stress levels to overwork and burnout, are heading in the wrong direction.

And the one that’s the most alarming? Our level of engagement in the workplace. Study after study is finding that most workers are disengaged with the work they are doing. One of the biggest comes from Gallup, who speak to 1000 people in 160 different countries as part of their State of the Global Workplace report each year. In 2024 they found that only 23% of workers said they were engaged at work, with 62% not engaged, and 15% actively disengaged. That means that over three quarters of all respondents were either quiet quitting (“filling a seat and watching the clock”) or loud quitting (“directly harming the organisation”).

There are many reasons why employees are disengaged at work. Some of the main ones that came up repeatedly are the lack of resources to properly do their job, feeling pressure and stress from work, frustration and thinking they are disposable. All of this is leading to overwhelm and burnout, which are rising in workplaces around the world. So, amidst all this gloom, what can leaders do to re-engage their team members?

The first thing you need to do is establish clear and open communication channels, so that you can get to the bottom of the issue and address it. Aim to use both confidential methods (like anonymous surveys) and identifiable ways (like in-person meetings) to allow employees

to be heard in honest and transparent ways. You’re not going to be able to tackle disengagement unless you know what you’re dealing with.

The second way to re-engage is to do an audit of your work environment, taking into account the issues identified in the first step. In an ideal world, there are consistent and timely ways for you to provide ongoing feedback and reward recognition for your team. Some of this can be in one-on-ones and others in public places like team meetings and group emails. Ensure that you’re able to co-create a solution with your staff members that takes into account both your preferred ways of working and theirs.

The final way to re-engage staff who have switched off is give them more control over their work and decisions that affect them. The source of many of the reasons for disengagement is a lack of control, so try to move towards a workplace where you help them set the goals they need to achieve, and then step back to allow them to get there. You must be aware that part of handing over more control to workers means being willing to give up some of it yourself.

It can be difficult to re-energise a staff member who has disengaged, but if you prioritise transparency, a healthy environment and give them some autonomy, you can give it a good go. It’s not going to be easy, but there’s no better achievement as a leader than helping someone re-discover their purpose at work when everyone else thought they’d given up


Tim Duggan is a leading expert on work and careers, and author of new book Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better

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