COMP NEWS – The Great Detachment is coming, say experts, and it’s going to strike employers through Gen Z workers.
The world’s workforce is disengaged, and the “Great Detachment” is looming.
According to experts, employees across all industries are increasingly engaging in “productivity theater” and performative busyness to get through their workday.
And Gen Zers, as the cohort associated with “quiet quitting” and a job being just a job, are leading the charge.
They are on track to outnumber boomers in the workforce this year and are expected to make up 27% of it by 2025.
But while it may be easy to blame the youngest generation of workers for the disconnect, it’s not the full story.
What older generations see as discontent and laziness may instead be a result of Zoomers setting boundaries and not being afraid to voice them.
Gallup data suggest that disengagement – which leads to low retention and other problems – costs trillions for companies globally.
The drop in employee engagement levels across the world is the “biggest challenge” companies are facing, according to Richard Wahlquist, the CEO of the American Staffing Association.
It’s also expensive. Gallup data estimates it could cost more than $8 trillion globally, and employees who are not engaged cost their companies the equivalent of 18% of their annual salary.
“We’ve got a vast majority of workers in every single office that are either not engaged or actively disengaged,” Wahlquist told Business Insider, citing Gallup data that shows that just roughly three in 10 employees are actively engaged.
“The others are either kind of neutral, they would leave for another job that pays more,” Wahlquist said. “And then there’s about 17% who are actively disengaged, they are unhappy. They will say unhappy things about you and your company.”
According to Gallup data this year, millennials and Gen Zers are seeing the biggest drop in engagement. Millennials have dropped seven points, from 39% to 32% being actively engaged, while actively engaged Gen Zers have dropped from
40% to 35%.
The percentage of actively disengaged millennials has risen from 12% to 17%, while for Zoomers, it has increased from 13% to 14%.
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