Gallup CEO says poor management is holding back workplace engagement
Jon Clifton said low engagement is costing the global economy about $10 trillion as AI adds anxiety for younger workers.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Gallup CEO Jon Clifton said employers are far from solving a global workplace engagement problem that is draining productivity and morale. Speaking Monday at the Jobs for the Future Horizons conference, he tied the issue to management failures rather than to workers’ dislike of their jobs.
Gallup has found that about 80% of workers worldwide are not engaged at work, with engagement falling over the past two years to levels last seen in 2020. Clifton said the scale of the problem makes a quick turnaround unlikely.
“We’re closer to colonizing Mars than we are to fixing the world’s broken workplace,” Clifton said on the panel. He said the line is used jokingly inside Gallup, but reflects a serious concern about how little progress employers have made.
Elon Musk said earlier this year on X that he hopes SpaceX can begin building a city on Mars within five to seven years. Clifton contrasted that ambition with workplaces that Gallup says remain weighed down by low engagement, weak management and falling morale.
Gallup estimates that weak employee engagement cost the global economy roughly $10 trillion in lost productivity last year, equal to about 9% of global GDP. Clifton said the data also show that work itself is not the main source of discontent: Gallup found that 80% of workers enjoy the work they do.
“The problem, therefore, is not work,” Clifton said. “The problem is the workplace.”
AI adds pressure for younger workers
The discussion also turned to artificial intelligence, which has fueled optimistic predictions from technology leaders about the future of work and space travel. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have also spoken favorably about a future in which people travel beyond Earth, according to the remarks discussed at the conference.
For many workers on Earth, Clifton said, AI is creating anxiety rather than confidence. Gallup found that from 2025 to 2026, Gen Z’s excitement about AI fell 14%, while anger about the technology rose 9%.
“We’ve seen hope plummet,” Clifton said, pointing to public frustration among young people, including students booing commencement speakers over AI. “It is getting to a place where it’s kind of concerning.”
Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer, joined Clifton on the panel and said workers’ fears are tied to a sense that AI’s future is being set by executives and technologists without their input. He argued that AI could widen access to knowledge and expertise if workers have more control over how it is used.
“AI is the easiest used technology humans have ever created,” Raman said. He said it could become one of the most democratizing technologies if applied in ways that help people build, create and gain access to opportunity.
Managers are central to the fix
Clifton said better management is the first step toward improving the workplace. He said whether a worker has a good or bad manager explains 70% of the variation in misery at work.
“If you don’t fix that, you’re going to drive the life out of those individual contributors,” Clifton said.
Gallup has also found that employees who say their manager helps them use AI are eight times more likely to say they have the chance to do what they do best. Gallup told Fortune that AI could create an opening to improve work because the current system is failing many workers, but said that opportunity depends on managers as much as on technology.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.