The Great Detachment: Why Employees Feel Stuck

Employees across America are feeling increasingly detached from their jobs.

They are seeking new job opportunities at the highest rate since 2015, while overall satisfaction with their employer has returned to a record low.

Yet, unlike the “Great Resignation,” many frustrated employees are struggling to make the leap to a new employer in a cooling job market and economy marred by inflation. Instead, they are left feeling stuck with their discontent.

Gallup refers to this shift as the “Great Detachment.”

For employers, this means that while turnover numbers may have slowed, employee productivity concerns and future talent loss are hidden organizational risks. In addition, when employees feel detached from their work, organizational change initiatives are likely to meet indifference or resistance.

What is causing people to detach from their employers?

While the issues fueling the Great Detachment are not entirely new, the historic workplace changes that initiated this new era are unique and require a new leadership approach.

Gallup research and field experience highlight five changes to organizations that have been particularly consequential in recent years:

1. Rapid organizational change: Most companies underwent rapid transformations post-2020. Record-high turnover and hiring during the Great Resignation resulted in many employees finding their footing in a new career. Today, seven in 10 employees (73%) say their organization has experienced some level of disruptive change in the past year. The more disruption that employees have experienced, the more likely they are to feel burned out today. Further, as businesses adjust to fluctuating markets, managers are reporting 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.
2. Hybrid and remote growing pains: Hybrid work entails switching work locations throughout the week and often results in team members working different schedules, which naturally challenges communication and coordination. The physical distancing inherent to remote work can also create an emotional distance. Gallup research shows that fully remote workers are consistently less connected to their organization’s mission or purpose compared with their hybrid counterparts.
3. New customer expectations: Fifty-six percent of employees report noticing changes in customer expectations since the pandemic, with 71% of those employees attributing changes to more demanding customers or higher expectations for a better digital experience.
4. New employee expectations: The pandemic caused many to reevaluate what they want from their career and employer. Work-life balance and better compensation packages became more important to employees, along with expectations for remote work flexibility. A mismatch between what employees expect and what employers offer can leave employees feeling undervalued and questioning their future.
5. Broken performance management practices: Most leaders have very little confidence in their performance management systems, leaving organizations without a reliable way to clarify expectations, align teams, recognize achievements and develop employees. This is particularly problematic in a highly disrupted environment riddled with changing expectations and employees working remotely more often.

These shifts have left employees feeling disoriented and disconnected from their employer.

Where should leaders start their comeback?

The Great Detachment coincides with significant declines in two critical elements of employee engagement: clarity of expectations at work and feeling connected to the company’s mission and purpose.

By focusing on these two factors, leaders can address their biggest vulnerabilities in this new era of work.

Solution No. 1: Reset Expectations and Priorities

The most fundamental aspect of employees' performance and development at work is knowing what is expected of them. Without clear expectations, there is no agreed-upon standard for success.

In the years before the pandemic, small majorities of employees reported having clear role expectations. But in most measures since 2021, less than half of employees say they know what is expected of them at work. This concerning decline hit a record low of 44% in late 2022 and remained just above that mark in November (45%).

Gallup’s latest measure shows that clarity of expectations at work is even blurrier for younger employees, new employees, hybrid workers and those in white-collar jobs.

To reverse this trend, leaders and managers should get back to the basics: They need to have two-way conversations with their team members to set expectations in a new or changing work environment. This is especially true for younger or new hybrid employees.

Expectations become clear to employees when they are:

• collaboratively set and prioritized with employees
• aligned with what the team aims to achieve
• regularly discussed
• considered alongside workload and wellbeing

Solution No. 2: Connect Individual Contributions to Mission and Purpose

Finding mission and purpose in one’s work provides intrinsic motivation for high performance. People want to know their work matters and that their employer makes a difference in the world. Mission and purpose also bond people together. Highly engaged employees feel like they belong to a community, not just a job.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, employees’ connection to the mission or purpose of their organization initially held steady as employers worked to unify their workforce and employees rallied to save their business.

In mid-2021, amid the Great Resignation, employees’ sense of connection began to erode as organizations experienced the pressure of constant change, uncertainty and a volatile labor market, which led to fatigue. A rapid decline ensued, with connection to company mission dropping from 38% in March 2021 to a record low of 30% in February 2024.

Connection to mission or purpose is particularly low among younger employees, fully remote workers and front-line employees.

To turn this trend around, leaders must communicate an inspiring vision that people want to get behind. This is critical at the organizational level, but ultimately, the connection must be made at the team level. Employees need a manager to show them why their effort makes a difference.

The best leaders and managers:

• clarify and model the mission and values of the organization
• help employees see how they contribute to something bigger
• ask employees to share stories about what makes them proud of their work
• ensure the employee experience is delivering on the company’s mission and values

The Power of the Employee-Employer Bond

The Great Detachment indicates that many employees are struggling to navigate new priorities and new ways of working. They are also questioning the meaning and purpose of their work, and have yet to be answered. This presents a challenge for companies that want to retain their talent, strengthen their culture and grow their business.

The good news is that by addressing two declining elements of engagement -- clear expectations and mission or purpose -- leaders can turn these risks into game-changing strengths. Gallup’s 11^th edition of its Q^12® meta-analysis (from 2024) shows:

• Improving clarity of expectations from today’s levels to best-practice levels can lead to a 9% increase in profitability and an 11% improvement in work quality.
• Improving the connection between employees’ jobs and the mission or purpose of their organization can lead to a 32% reduction in turnover and a 15% improvement in productivity.

Organizations that deliver on these two critical needs will build a more committed workforce and inspire their people’s best work. That’s good for employees, employers and their customers.