According to Gallup's global workplace report, employee engagement dropped to 20% in 2025. This hasn't happened since 2009, and another major fact: no region in the world saw its engagement rate increase. The cost of this disengagement is estimated at approximately $10 trillion in global productivity. And it is the United States and Canada that experienced the largest drops (10 points) in optimism regarding the job market.
What needs to be understood, beyond these numbers, is that you can have teams that are present but feeling less and less invested in their work. The problem with quiet quitting is that you don't always know how to spot the early warning signs when it sets in. And by the time you see it, it is already well advanced.
The path leading to disengagement
Disengagement is the final state reached if one is not attentive to certain signals. You don't become disengaged suddenly; it is a process.
This process begins with emotional withdrawal: the employee detaches from your company's values. You observe a drop in enthusiasm, and the employee becomes increasingly irritable over daily details.
The next phase is behavioral withdrawal, characterized by the avoidance of team projects. This is the moment when the signs become visible to the team: isolation, avoiding collective projects, or keeping cameras off during video calls.
The phase that concludes the cycle is cognitive withdrawal. From this moment on, proposals and initiatives disappear completely; your collaborator settles for delivering only the strict minimum required by their contract.
Summer can be a time when quiet quitting strikes many organizations. Offices are partially empty, key contacts are away, collaborators leave and return from vacations without crossing paths... Employees working during this period may feel like they are "on hold" until activities resume.
This is the time to take advantage of this quieter period in terms of operations to organize activities that reconnect your people, such as a barbecue, internal challenges, or focus groups on continuous improvement, among others. The idea is to show them that summer is a valuable period, just like their contribution while being present.
Disengagement: no one is safe
In the same Gallup study, we see that manager engagement has also dropped by 9 points since 2022, even though, historically, manager engagement has always been above the global average. Your managers are not immune to disengagement.
Stuck between demands coming from "above" and the needs of their teams, they find themselves at a crossroads that makes them vulnerable to quiet quitting. And this is a dangerous blind spot for your operations because a disengaged manager can contaminate the entire team.
Just like managers, certain employee profiles are more at risk of being exposed to quiet quitting:
- The employee who has passed the first 18 months and hasn't seen their expectations met.
- The person who is solicited everywhere because they are reliable, but who is never asked if that suits them.
- Those who have experienced a change in manager, a restructuring, or a promise left unfulfilled.
- The employee who invests themselves to the point of confusing their identity with their work.
- Or the collaborator who goes home to a "second shift" as a parent or caregiver. It is important to watch their energy levels.
All generations can be affected by disengagement; what changes is the way they live it and show it. The youngest, from Generation Z and millennials, will openly name and embrace their choice to step back. Whereas Generation X and baby boomers will experience this loss of motivation in shame. They will hide it behind a facade of performance, making it even harder to detect.
Storytelling as a remedy for disengagement!
Faced with disengagement, our first reflex is to act on the symptoms with: a team activity, a recognition email... These gestures have their place, obviously, but if we don't address the root cause, which is a loss of meaning, we are only postponing the problem.
To rebuild trust and stimulate intrinsic motivation, you must change your method.
Sincere and deep employee engagement comes from their ability to see themselves happy by your side, inspired and convinced they are in the right place for their future. It is therefore up to you to learn to communicate authentically and inspiringly to build a common vision.
If your collaborators understand the company's genesis and the vision that guides your choices, their daily work regains meaning. They know that by executing their tasks, they are contributing to a project whose finality they understand. They see the role they have to play through their contribution.
When you place your employees at the heart of the narrative, you transform them into heroes of the story. What restores meaning for your employees is feeling like part of a story they belong to, where their impact is recognized. And that is what storytelling brings you.
In conclusion
Quiet quitting sets in when meaning evaporates. To bring your teams back, your narrative must regain its value. This value is found in your words and your communications, because they have the power to rebuild trust and gather your collaborators around a common project.
If you find that your messages are no longer engaging, our training is designed to give you the tools you need ➡️HR storytelling: telling stories to attract, integrate and retain talent.
This training allows decision-makers, managers, and professionals to structure authentic narratives, embody the organization's values, and explain transformations with impact. Learn with us how to build inspiring communication that re-engages.
