Workers Are in a Crisis. Communicators Must Step Up

The American workforce is in deep turmoil, with record numbers of people feeling resentful about how they are treated and actively hunting for a new job, Gallup has found in a series of recent surveys.

At the same time, the percentage of people who are enthusiastic about their work and workplace has dropped to its lowest level in a decade. Employees’ pride in the quality of their products and service and feeling respected on the job have fallen to a point not seen since the research firm began asking those questions in 2008.

Meanwhile, the levels of stress, worry, anger and sadness at work are higher than they were before the pandemic.

Gallup has not drawn any broad assessments from the five nationwide surveys released since Dec. 2, 2024. Maybe it’s waiting for its annual report, “State of the Global Workforce.” But the firm’s commentary in each report makes the conclusion inescapable: The workplace is a nightmare for many.

The surveys are a warning to every employer. The problems likely exist in every company to some degree. The fixes will require a companywide effort, from the C-Suite to the manager’s desk and the shop floor.

But the first step should be a hard look at internal communications, whether that’s an in-house review or a comprehensive audit. We’ll look at Gallup’s findings combined with some of our own insights for internal communications teams.

Known for its impartial research, the firm traces its history to a Princeton, N.J.-based company founded in 1935 by pioneering pollster George Gallup. He died in 1984. A market research firm led by Jim Clifton acquired Gallup in 1988 and he is chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based company. His son Jon replaced Jim as CEO in 2022.

Take the quiz
Only 31% of employees are engaged in their work, the lowest level in a decade. Meanwhile, 17% of workers are actively disengaged, the highest level since 2014, according to a report released Jan. 14, 2025.

Engaged employees are “highly involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace,” Gallup says. Those who are actively disengaged “aren’t just unhappy at work ― they are resentful that their needs aren’t being met and are acting out their unhappiness.”

The effort to build engagement should start after a candidate accepts a position.

“Never are employees more engaged than when they start,” Kristin Graham, an affiliate consultant with Ragan Consulting Group, has said. “Within this space, this is when they’re most willing to give you their discretionary effort.”

Managers are at the frontlines of a business yet receive little or no communications training.  How are your manager communications? To find out, take affiliate consultant Julie Baron’s  15-question quiz.

Communication overlooked
Fifty-one percent of workers are actively seeking a new job, tying a record high set in 2014-15, a Dec. 3, 2024, survey found. Meanwhile, just 18% are extremely satisfied with their employer, tying the record low set in 2022.

“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,” Gallup says. “Instead, they are left feeling stuck with their discontent.”

In 2023, Baron wrote, “Often overlooked is the role communication plays in boosting employee retention.”

“Today’s employees want the increased communication efforts, manager availability and clarity of expectations that their employers showed them they were capable of during the unforeseen, extremely difficult time of COVID-19,” Baron wrote.

Pride plummets
When employees aren’t satisfied, productivity slips and customers notice, Gallup says. Just 28% of employees say they’re extremely proud of the quality of the products or services their organizations offer, the lowest level since the firm began asking the question in 2008, according to a survey released last week.

Employee pride has dropped eight percentage points since 2020. The change varies by industry, with transportation and warehousing showing the steepest declines.

Several factors help instill a sense of pride, including fully explaining corporate actions and maintaining regular communication, Graham has said.

“The less leaders share, the more rumors and speculation will spread,” she said.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Just 37% of employees strongly agree they are treated with respect at work, the lowest level since Gallup began tracking respect in 2008, which matches the lows reached during the Great Resignation of 2021-22, a survey released Jan. 13, 2025 found.

“Historically, on-site workers who are not remote-capable experience the lowest levels of respect,” Gallup says. Among those employees, just 32% strongly agree they are treated with respect.

It’s as if a chorus of employees are singing an Aretha Franklin song.

Respect is an important element of the Four Pillars of Integrity that should be the foundation of a successful communications strategy, affiliate consultant Kim Clark has written. Showing respect takes many forms, from how colleagues speak to each other to abolishing an “always-on” culture that expects responses to emails and phone calls outside of regular business hours.

Stressed out
Fifty-one percent of workers feel stress a lot of the day, lower than during the onset of the pandemic in 2020 but higher than any year before then, Gallup found in a survey released Dec. 2. All four of the negative emotions measured by Gallup ― stress, worry, anger and sadness ― are higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Those results were foreshadowed a month earlier. Just 24% of workers say their organization cares about their overall wellbeing, Gallup reported in November. The proportion of workers who feel that way has steadily declined since the peak of the pandemic in May 2020, when 49% of employees said their employer cared about their wellbeing.

The big causes of these negative emotions may be out of the control of the internal communications team, but not beyond their influence. In September, we offered four ways that comm teams can reduce the chronic workplace stress of employees.

Queen of Soul
Fixing the problems identified by Gallup won’t be easy or quick. Early in her career, Franklin offered some advice that might be helpful.

At age 21, she was a rising star when she was featured in Ebony magazine in 1964. Her first big hit album, “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You),” wouldn’t come for three more years.

In 1964, she was already fighting with Columbia Records, which released her first four albums. The record label hadn’t promoted her as much as it had another one of its young singers, Barbra Streisand, she said. She also had taken on booking agents, saying they had conflicts of interest.

And she had fired her personal manager. “She didn’t give me the same respect I gave her,” she said.

But Franklin was undaunted.

 “It’s the rough side of the mountain that’s the easiest climb; the smooth side doesn’t have anything for you to hang on to,” she said.

Tom Corfman is a senior consultant with Ragan Consulting Group, who remembers buying Aretha Franklin’s 1967 album at the record shop near our apartment, which was always crowded after school and on Saturdays.

Concerned about your workforce? Set up a free, 30-minute consultation about conducting an internal communications assessment.

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