Workers are still more stressed than they've ever been, which is reflected in their on-the-job engagement levels: the term "quiet quitting," coined in 2022, continues to accurately reflect employees' mindsets, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The analytics firm released its "State of the Global Workforce: 2023 Report" on June 13. Its primary data comes from the Gallup World Poll, which has been conducted since 2005. For the 2022 poll, 122,416 randomly selected workers replied across more than 160 countries. Gallup typically surveys at least 1,000 workers from each country.
The poll found that global employee engagement reached a record high in 2022 — but that does not mean the majority of employees are engaged. In the U.S., 31 percent of workers are engaged, 8 percent above the international average. However, 52 percent of workers say they are not engaged at work, and 17 percent report active disengagement.
Internationally, nearly 6 in 10 employees report disengagement — otherwise known as quiet quitting. Gallup estimates that this costs the global economy $8.8 trillion, or 9 percent of the global GDP.
Employees who quiet quit told Gallup they would change their workplace's engagement or culture (41 percent of respondents). Meanwhile, 28 percent would change their pay or benefits, and 16 percent would make shifts for their well-being — such as the opportunity to work from home more often, take longer breaks or work less overtime.
Additionally, 44 percent of employees reported experiencing a lot of stress the previous day, mirroring the record high set in 2021. East Asia — which includes China — tied the U.S. and Canada for the countries experiencing the most stress.
Despite workplace stress and low engagement, workers believe the job market is better than it was last year. Fifty-three percent of employees said it is a good time to find a job, compared to 44 percent in 2020 and 45 percent in 2021.
And they plan to capitalize on this perception — more than half of workers are watching or actively searching for a new job, they told Gallup.
Read more about quiet quitting here.