There were notable declines in employee well-being within the global workforce last year. Gallup’s recently released, State of the Global Workplace report, found 41 per cent of workers experience “a lot of stress,” which varies significantly depending on how organizations are run.

Being actively disengaged at work is equivalent to or worse than being unemployed when it comes to well-being. Yet, employment is associated with high levels of daily enjoyment and low levels of all negative daily emotions when employees find their work and work relationships meaningful. Notably, half of employees who are engaged at work are thriving in life overall.

“Those who work in companies with bad management practices (actively disengaged) are nearly 60% more likely to be stressed than people working in environments with good management practices (engaged),” said Jon Clifton CEO of the Gallup Organization. “In fact, experiencing “a lot of stress” is reported approximately 30% more frequently by employees working under bad management than by the unemployed.”

The global snapshot, which included more than 100,000 employed respondents in the 2023 data, looked at employee mental health, how economics and policy are attributed to well-being and the role management plays in organizational performance. An estimated 1,000 workers were polled in each country that was included. Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy 8.9 trillion U.S. dollars, or 9 per cent of global GDP.

“Leaders know workplace stress is a problem — they’ve seen the data, heard it from their colleagues, and experienced it themselves,” added Clifton. “A quarter of leaders feel burned out often or always, and two-thirds feel it at least sometimes. Many are trying to address it, but often in ineffective ways.”

Managers accounted for 70 per cent of the variance in team employee engagement. They also have more negative daily experiences than non-managers and are more likely to be looking for a new job. “When organizations increase the number of engaged employees, they improve a host of organizational outcomes, including profit, retention rates and
customer service.” the report states.

The purpose of the report is to help employers evaluate how topics relate to their own culture to form strategies for attracting and keeping top talent. Respondents were also polled on their perceptions of the job climate. They also shared their daily feelings, which could help glean more understanding around why people join or leave an organization.

For instance, another key finding of the report was that twenty per cent of the world’s employees experience daily loneliness, which was revealed to be highest for fully remote workers (25 per cent) than those who work fully on-site (16 per cent), and also higher for employees under 35.

Yet work interactions don’t have to be in person to provide a benefit. A Gallup study in 2021, “Wellbeing at work: How to build resilient and thriving teams,” found that all forms of social time (phone, video, texting, etc.) are associated with a better mood, yet technological interactions have thresholds where moods drop after moderate amounts.

Canada and the United States

Engaged employees in countries with labour laws aimed at fair wages, safe work, family responsibilities and maternity reported the lowest stress.

Canada and the United States had the highest regional percentage of engaged employees, yet the majority are not engaged or actively disengaged in their work. These regions also had the second highest regional percentage of employees experiencing daily stress, a 3 per cent drop from the previous year.

According to work mode, those who feel most engaged are working exclusively remote or in hybrid form. Another twenty-nine are working on-site. Employees over age 35 are slightly more engaged (34 per cent) than the under 35 cohort (32 per cent).

Stress was more evident for females (54 per cent) than their male counterparts (45 per cent), and also higher for managers and those over age 35. Yet individual contributors experienced more feelings of loneliness and sadness compared to managers.

When asked, “to what extent are you currently looking for a different job than the one you have now?” 49 per cent of employees, primarily over age 35, reported they are watching for or actively seeking one out.

For more insight in worker well-being and data from various countries, the State of the Global Workplace report can be accessed here.