Today’s workforce is already stressed by an uncertain economy, a paralyzed job market, and the threat of AI-related displacement. Add a growing childcare crisis and rising healthcare costs, combine it with near-daily news of global and domestic strife from Iran to Venezuela to Minnesota, and it’s no surprise many employees feel distracted, fearful, and increasingly on edge. Employee confidence and engagement have fallen significantly lower than they were in 2020.
Stress at work is compounding with stress at home in ways that should alarm every executive. But when I ask leaders what they’re hearing from their C-suite executives about employee wellbeing, the answer tends to be “not much.” Hesitant to jump in too often on the crisis of the day, chastened by lessons from the pandemic, and emboldened by having the upper hand in the job market, too many leaders have gone silent about the stresses workers face.
The result is bad for business: Lost productivity from burnout and an inability for many to focus on work. The solution doesn’t rely on executives always speaking up, but supporting and enabling managers to do more to support their teams.
Why executives went silent
It wasn’t always this way. In 2020, many executives pivoted hard to a people-centered approach, ensuring employees felt cared for and supported. That was partly because everyone was in the same boat: Whether you were used to the corner office with a nanny or dropped kids at daycare and took the train, everyone was figuring out how to make it all work.
The other major difference? Not long into the pandemic, fears of widespread recession shifted to a demand for knowledge workers, particularly in tech. Employees could, and did, ask for anything and everything, pressuring employers to jump into social and political issues they either didn’t agree with or had no real stake in supporting. Many leaders came out of that period feeling like they’d been drawn into divisive, no-win situations. A White House that attacks or pressures critics has only added to their silence.
Today, employers are in command, leveraging the threat of AI to keep their employee base in line. People are afraid to speak up or find themselves on the next layoff list. A weak labor market, combined with a higher cost of living, silences people’s willingness to speak up.
There’s also a new crisis almost daily, making it impossible to keep up. Should companies respond to the killing last week in Minnesota, or the fatal shooting of lawmakers last year, or Charlie Kirk being shot? For many, “none of the above” just feels simpler. As one comms leader put it to me, “There’s something every day. Response trees got tighter and more practical, and the result is more quiet.”
Wellbeing is still a business issue
For leaders, focusing on what matters—their firm’s purpose, and what directly impacts their employees’ ability to do their jobs—is a reasonable boundary. But it leaves a fundamental problem: Many people still aren’t OK.
When people see startling or disturbing events unfold, they struggle to focus. As one leader said to me, “Muting noise from outside becomes next to impossible. We saw it a ton in 2020, then again with January 6. Add in the stress and complexities of their personal lives—it’s amazing that people are still as productive as they are.”
Research shows that lack of mental wellbeing directly drains productivity and increased stress leads to disengagement and burnout. Studies put the cost of employee disengagement and burnout between $4,000 and $20,000 per employee, with higher rates for executives. Eighty-nine percent of that cost comes not from lost days but from unproductive ones, when employees are present but unable to focus.
Increased stress decreases professionalism and harms team cohesion. Leaders aren’t immune. Again and again last year, the “glue layer” of organizations—the middle managers who sit between line supervisors and executives—were the most burned out and disengaged. In tech, for example, 59% of middle managers were burned out, compared to 45% overall.
What leaders need to do now
The answer isn’t for executives to start taking stances on Venezuela, Iran, Minnesota, or the next crisis that emerges. What helps people most is a sense of stability and support, and that work can be a place where they can do their jobs and get the support they need during difficult periods.
If you ignore the reality many people face, you risk misunderstandings that can hurt your culture, and further burnout, teammate distrust, and loss of productivity that can hurt your business.
Better and longer-term solutions come from helping all managers understand the signs of burnout, and giving them basic tools to address the symptoms of the stress people feel.
Melissa Swift, CEO of organizational consulting firm Anthrome Insight, described in a recent column the signs of how “not OK” shows up at work. Watch out for people who react more emotionally, start under- or over-communicating, and look for other ways people act out of character. Don’t assume you know what’s happening in their personal lives, and listen closely when anyone says they’re not doing ok. Mitigate what’s causing the stress first, then look for ways to address the root causes.
There are also practical steps that every manager can take. Some include:
- Consistent check-ins. Weekly one-on-ones that normalize the question “how are you doing this week?” and that give people space to say “I’m stressed, this is a hard week” can be enough.
- Clear priorities. When everything is a priority and urgency feels relentless, adding one more initiative can make people seize up entirely. Clear priorities help people align and support each other.
- Team connections. Create simple ways for people to ask for help, and establish regular time to gather for in-person connection, whether that’s a couple of days a week for co-located teams or quarterly gatherings for distributed groups.
Finally, be consistent in your messaging. If your CEO is focused on keeping everyone’s nose to the grindstone, saying “we care” can feel hypocritical or indifferent. We can remind people we can’t solve all the sources of stress they feel, but we do need people to be able to do good work. And that means their wellbeing is a business priority, too.