Crisis of Employee Satisfaction and Egagement by Gallap Research "State of the Global Workplace 2025"

The 2025 Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” report highlights an escalating crisis of employee engagement and satisfaction that directly undermines productivity and corporate growth. The report focuses on declining engagement, deteriorating wellbeing, and especially severe burnout among managers as the critical link in organizational systems.

Global Engagement Decline

Globally, only about 21% of employees are classified as “engaged”, marking a drop from the previous year and a return to near-crisis levels seen during the pandemic. Europe shows the lowest engagement levels, with roughly 13% of employees feeling truly engaged in their work and organizational goals. Around one-third of workers worldwide describe their lives as “thriving”, while the majority fall into a “struggling” category, indicating a widening gap between work and overall life satisfaction.

Wellbeing-Stress Connection

The report stresses a tight connection between low engagement and poor wellbeing: as engagement falls, stress, fatigue, and burnout risks rise sharply. High stress and a weak sense of belonging have become the norm, with more employees reporting loneliness, emotional exhaustion, and a lack of meaning in their work. Gallup estimates that the economic cost of low engagement and dissatisfaction reaches trillions of dollars in lost global GDP, turning this from a narrow HR issue into a strategic business risk.

Managers' Sharp Drop

Managers experience the most dramatic decline: their engagement has dropped by several percentage points, with young leaders and women managers particularly affected. Positioned between senior leadership expectations and team needs, managers face constant change, growing workloads, and pressure to implement AI without enough support or clarity. This erosion of manager wellbeing and engagement drives a cascading demotivation effect across teams, amplifying the broader satisfaction crisis.

Structural Root Causes

The report points to structural drivers such as weak management quality, poor feedback practices, and a lack of clear, shared purpose and values that employees can identify with. As recognition and belonging erode, people increasingly see their jobs as “just a paycheck” rather than a source of growth and meaning. Post-pandemic turbulence—hybrid work, reorganizations, layoffs, and rapid AI adoption—intensifies perceptions of instability and unfairness, undermining trust and long-term loyalty to organizations.

Path Forward

Gallup frames the findings as a warning that the global workplace is “on the brink” unless organizations rethink management, culture, and wellbeing strategies. The key lever is investment in manager development, recognition cultures, and a compelling work value proposition that connects business goals with human needs for meaning, growth, and belonging. Organizations that turn managers into intentional “architects of engagement” are positioned to emerge from this satisfaction crisis with stronger productivity, innovation, and talent retention.

Gallup “State of the Global Workplace 2025”