When I started my career within startups, the era of tech optimism was in full swing.
Myself and my colleagues felt like we were part of something special. We were working hard, sure, but it was in service of missions we believed in. We were ready to put our ding in the universe.
Fast-forward a few years and the shine for a lot of us has well and truly worn off - and my cohort is far from alone in this. In fact, it’s beginning to look like a pretty universal issue - the latest Gallup ‘State of the Global Workplace’ report found that in 2025, engagement fell for the first time since 2009 to a record low of 21%.
In this article, we’ll be putting this engagement crisis under the microscope, taking an unvarnished look at why a lot of us are feeling pretty lukewarm about work and what might help - both on a personal level and if you find yourself managing a disillusioned team.
There are many reasons that ennui is feeling pretty pervasive at the moment.
We’re deep in a cost of living crisis. The employers that told us they cared about our mental health in COVID are now stripping back benefits and asking us to come back to the office.
Whilst more and more research shows that employees care deeply about the ethics of organisations they work for, companies that used to boast about not being evil are now happy to sign dystopian contracts to use AI for weapons and surveillance.
Add to this picture an increase in layoffs and the rise of restructuring as a constant practice and you have a pretty bleak picture, with a lot of teams being asked to do more with less, for limited rewards.
As one redditor puts it: ‘we are not working toward any collective goal like eventually reducing work overall and increasing everyone's prosperity while also maintaining the health of the environment. It is very individualistic and therefore it feels like there is no incentive to do more than the bare minimum.’
For a lot of people, the writing has been on the wall for a while. Taking the rose-tinted glasses off and revisiting the start of my career, it’s clear to me that despite a lot of talk about prioritising equity, it took a certain degree of privilege just to get through the door.
As much as I did appreciate the sheer amount of free beer and pizza I consumed during that era, I was just as often disquieted by the pervasiveness of burnout amongst my cohort and how neatly it was framed as an individual failing rather than a systemic issue.
Whilst the roots of the crisis of disillusionment run deep, it feels pretty clear to me that things have come to a head for three urgent reasons.
The first is that the psychological contract - the intangible, unwritten agreement between an employer and employee - has been torn to shreds.
After all, why should an employer expect loyalty when they prove themselves willing to commence layoffs at any point? Why should team members respect organisations that force adoption of AI tools that we’re being told might replace us, but in the meantime fill our inboxes with badly written slop?
The second is that the profit motive is more visible than it’s ever been. Companies still talk a good game about their mission and values, but too often they prove themselves willing to ditch them when the going gets tough. Leaders, who often have very different (read: bigger) incentives often fail to recognise that producing more shareholder value is hardly an inspiring rallying cry in and of itself.
Finally, we’ve now all experienced another way of being. Though the pandemic was tough for workers, it did, in some industries, offer gains in terms of flexibility, work-life balance and benefits. However, this hasn’t translated into long term gains.
The Gallup report quoted at the top of this article also highlighted that manager engagement is falling at a steeper rate compared to the workforce as a whole. The report attributes this to a range of factors, including lack of support for managers and a feeling of being ‘squeezed’ between greater expectations from both leadership and our own teams.
If you’re feeling this squeeze, here are some ways to create some space for yourself:
Just because you’re unable or unwilling to align perfectly with your organisation’s stated vision, doesn’t mean you can’t find purpose in your work.
Identifying what you enjoy about what you do can help you to be more present and figure out how you might integrate more of what you love into your day to day.
Earlier this year, we wrote about both identifying and leading with your personal values. We recommend using these as anchors to change your approach to your work, challenge unethical behaviour when you see and help with our next focus area: untangling your identity from your work.
There’s nothing wrong with being proud of and invested in what you do. However, tying too much of your identity to your work can be emotionally draining. It also ignores the reality that work is not the stable part of life it used to be.
To de-emphasise the role of work in your life, reconsider your boundaries and think about how to devote more time to your community, relationships and hobbies.
If you’re struggling to know where to start, you might want to think about what really lit you up as a child. How can you bring some of that joy into your world as it is right now?
Given that our careers are now less linear than they once were, connection and investing time in building your network is crucial.
Find people that you can have authentic conversations with and who make your working day better when you speak to them. It’s likely that as well as having a little bit more fun at work, you’ll also learn from each other and build alliances.
Once your work bestie moves on, it’s also good to stay in touch and hear more about other working environments. This will help you gain fresh perspective and possibly even spot greener pastures elsewhere.
Listen
There are many, many more reasons why someone might be presenting as disengaged than we’ve had the space to cover today. It’s important not to assume that the things niggling at you are the same things niggling at your team member. Instead, listen first before presenting ideas or solutions.
If you invest time in getting to know your team members as people, you’ll gradually understand how to support them better, but remember, they’re still adults and experts in their own lives. Your job as a manager is, at least in part, to help them navigate the organisation and remove barriers.
Disillusionment blooms in the gaps between expectation and reality. So, as a manager, it’s important to be as transparent as you can possibly be with your team, about everything from the availability of opportunities for advancement to the reasons behind a layoff.
Whilst jobs for life may be largely a thing of the past, there is freedom in embracing non-linear and multihyphenate career paths. It allows for experimentation and allows our relationship with work to evolve as we move through different stages of life.
Encouraging your team members to think about things from this new perspective and sharing examples of where flexibility has helped you grow can relieve them of an outdated view of how things might turn out.
In this article, we’ve explored just how multi-faceted our current crisis of disillusionment is. Far from being an overblown TikTok trend, it’s reflective of a genuine breakdown in the psychological contract. Whilst there are no silver bullets, there are ways to create more ease for yourself and your team.
We think you’ll like these other related articles.
Join the list.
Every two weeks our community newsletter is released to spark curiosity about the world around you and challenge your thinking. Sound good?
