Workplace engagement falls to lowest level in more than a decade
Gallup and a global workplace study point to unclear expectations, exhaustion and weak psychological safety as key pressures on employees.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
3 min read
U.S. employee engagement has fallen to its lowest level in more than 10 years, according to Gallup, with only about 30% of full- and part-time workers saying they feel engaged at work. A separate 2026 study from the Center for Organizational Effectiveness points to a management problem behind the decline: workers say they lack clear expectations, realistic workloads and the safety to speak up.
Gallup defines engagement around whether employees feel invested in their work and its results. Bob Batchelor, an assistant professor of communication, media and culture at Coastal Carolina University, wrote in The Conversation that a workforce in which more than two-thirds of employees are checked out reflects a broad leadership failure.
The Center for Organizational Effectiveness, a consulting firm, released its 2026 Psychological Safety Study in March. The firm said the study drew on anonymized clinical conversations with workers at more than 100,000 companies, organizations and government agencies that together employ 88 million people worldwide.
The report focused on psychological safety, or whether employees feel able to raise concerns, ask questions or acknowledge mistakes without fear of punishment. Amy Edmondson, a leadership and management scholar, has found that teams with higher psychological safety outperform those with lower levels, according to research cited by Batchelor.
What workers say is getting in the way
Globally, the Center for Organizational Effectiveness identified three leading concerns limiting psychological safety. The first was work-life balance, especially when job demands exceed the time and energy workers have available.
The second was anxiety about job performance. Batchelor described that pressure as the stress created when managers’ expectations are vague or keep shifting.
The third was unclear objectives. Many employees do not know which goals matter most, what priorities should guide their work or where their employer is trying to go, according to the study.
That finding lines up with Gallup’s data on workplace expectations. Gallup found that 46% of U.S. workers clearly know what their employers expect from them, down from 56% in 2020.
U.S. workers report strain
In the United States, the Center for Organizational Effectiveness found that work-life balance has become the top issue for employees, overtaking workplace trauma such as harassment, violence or prolonged high-stress conditions. Batchelor wrote that chronic exhaustion has become a defining feature of work for many employees, including those who work remotely.
Concerns about artificial intelligence eliminating jobs and worries tied to a weak economy are also contributing to workers’ sense of imbalance, according to Batchelor, who cited reporting on both pressures.
The study found different patterns outside the United States. In France, the leading concern was limited room for professional development, while work-life balance did not rank among the top three issues. Batchelor linked that finding to shorter workdays under strict labor laws and fewer perceived opportunities for learning and career mobility.
A lack of clarity about job performance ranked as a top issue in 11 countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Brazil and Mexico, according to the Center for Organizational Effectiveness. Batchelor wrote that unclear goals and shifting priorities can make employees more cautious and less willing to take risks.
Donald Thompson, managing director of the Center for Organizational Effectiveness and author of “The Employee Engagement Handbook,” said psychological safety depends on what employees experience day to day. “It’s built on the daily realities of how people experience work,” Thompson said.
Batchelor wrote that workers judge leaders less by mission statements than by how managers respond when employees raise difficult issues. If employees see a colleague punished for speaking up, he said, they learn the practical rule regardless of any stated open-door policy.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.