Jaded Gen Zers are unhappy at work — now the ‘Great Detachment’ has taken over

The perfect storm of workplace trends like “quiet quitting” and “quiet vacationing” has yielded a seismic shift in employee engagement and ushered in the “Great Detachment.”

Recent data from Gallup revealed a decline in employee engagement, especially in millennials and Gen Z workers. Young millennials and Zoomers reported a 5% decline in engagement, while older millennials’ engagement fell by 7%.

Disengagement, Gallup states, is estimated to cost the world $8.8 trillion in productivity.

“We’ve got a vast majority of workers in every single office that are either not engaged or actively disengaged,” American Staffing Association CEO Richard Wahlquist told Business Insider.

Approximately three in 10 employees are not engaged at work, per the outlet, and Wahlquist estimates about 17% are “actively disengaged” and “unhappy.”

While the plight of workplace engagement has been top of mind for years, the current trend feels “unique” to Leena Rinne, Skillsoft’s global head of coaching, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, return-to-office policies and an influx of layoffs as reasons for the “Great Detachment.”

“We’ve seen Instagram layoff moments that are horrifying, and people thinking, well, I thought this was my work family, but I was cut off in a moment,” Rinne told the outlet. “There’s a crisis of trust.”

Employees also feel trapped in a job that is unsatisfactory, with about half of Americans actively looking for a new role, according to Gallup data. While the “Great Resignation” yielded a hot job market, it has since stagnated, leaving workers stuck — and detached.

“Despite declines in engagement and higher expectations from employers, the cooling economic and job markets have trapped frustrated employees in their current situation,” Ben Wigert, who co-authored the Gallup report and is the company’s director of research for workplace management practice, told Fortune.

“While these frustrated employees may have left under previous market conditions, declines in hiring and increases in inflation substantially elevate the risk associated with changing jobs.”

Cue the quiet quitting.

But such behavior isn’t fueled by laziness or wanting to perform poorly but, rather, employees — primarily Gen Z — are merely setting boundaries in a way no generation has before.

“Gen Z is showing up in a given way because they feel that’s how the company’s showing up for them,” Rinne said.

Applied CEO Khyati Sundaram told BI that employers are “lagging behind” in terms of Gen Z’s priorities, such as mental health, diversity, sustainability and work-life balance.

“I think they’re very positive, reasonable things to look for at work because, ultimately, everybody wants a great life,” Sundaram said.

But those values are relatively new in the workplace, she explained, which is “creating discontent on both sides” — young employees are written off as lazy or flakey, reports BI, but they see themselves setting healthy boundaries.

“Gen Zs are getting stereotyped because they’re voicing it,” Sundaram continued. “It’s not new. It’s the voicing it that’s new. And the judgment that comes associated with that.”

The solution, however, is simple: Employees want to feel like they matter.

“People still need that human moment, that human connection,” said Rinne, who called for “intentional” efforts made on behalf of the company to build trust with employees.

“There has to be intention and thought and budget, candidly, put behind the initiatives that we know will drive better outcomes with people.”