U.S. workers continue to report high levels of daily negative emotions — such as stress, worry, anger and sadness — that remain elevated above pre-pandemic numbers, according to a Dec. 2 update of Gallup’s workforce indicators on employee well-being.
All four negative emotions peaked at the height of the pandemic in 2020, Gallup found.
Of those surveyed, 51% said they experienced stress during “a lot of the day” the day before. Meanwhile, 40% reported experiencing worry, 22% reported anger, and 18% reported sadness. However, these emotions varied based on employee engagement, Gallup said.
“Workplace interactions play a measurable role in employees’ emotions,” Ryan Pendell, a senior workplace science editor at Gallup, wrote in the report. “Gallup finds that engaged employees are substantially less likely to experience high levels of daily negative emotions than those who are not engaged or actively disengaged at work.”
For instance, although more than half of survey respondents reported stress, that jumped to 69% among those who were actively disengaged and dropped to 40% among those who were engaged.
Pendell pointed to high-quality management as one of the biggest factors in employees’ daily emotions, noting that 70% of team engagement is attributable to the manager.
“To create a culture of wellbeing that employees can feel, mental health initiatives should be combined with employee engagement best practices and frequent wellbeing conversations at the team level,” Pendell wrote.
Nearly 8 in 10 employees have experienced burnout during the past year, leading to lower engagement among half of workers and lower productivity among a third of workers, according to an isolved report. About 70% of workers said they’re restless and looking to change jobs, particularly for more flexibility, better benefits and career development opportunities.
In turn, about half of CHROs said they planned to offer new well-being benefits in 2024 amid declining engagement, according to a report from The Conference Board. Mental health initiatives were the most common category of new benefits, followed by initiatives for physical health and fitness, financial wellbeing and work-life balance.