Cheeky Half Episode (39): Did you experience A LOT OF stress yesterday? You aren't alone.

Gallup publishes its State of the Global Workplace report once a year. This year it's 251 pages of data on engagement, emotions, wellbeing and the general mood of the global workforce. One of its headlines on the 2026 edition? "Global employee wellbeing improved for the first time in three years."

Paul and KG have questions. And Paul calls BS.

Cheeky Half episodes are short. So rather than spending your precious minutes on a written explanation, we definitely encourage you to listen.

• You can find the Gallup State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report at gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx

If you are interested in a written reflection of this discussion and its themes, you can find our brief article here. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Sounds a little bit weird, doesn't it? It's lies, Dan, Lars, and Statistics. Welcome to the Leadership Decandidate, a Talk Edition, where we dare to share unfinished thoughts and ideas around some potentially fawny leadership questions. And even though KG and I can always be in the same room, we still do this over a glass of our favourite beverage. KG!

SPEAKER_01 0:36

What's happening, man? We're back. We're back. We are back. I like it. I like it. It is cheeky halftime. And we've got a good one today.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Yeah, we do. Yeah, and we do apologize. We are a week late, but you know, that's life. At least we're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

In radio land or podcast land, you know, time. Ah you you listen to it whenever you wish.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

So it's true. Um, but I know that you know there are people that are just waiting on the edge of their seats for the next episode. So we do apologize to that person. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

The one email. Thank you for reminding us. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Yeah, sorry about that. Today you're right. You're right. We do have an interesting one. We're going back to something that we've done a couple of years ago. Maybe we've done it more than once. I really can't remember, KG. But we're looking at the latest report from Gallup called The State of the Global Workplace.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yes. Definitely done it before.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

I think we have done it before, yeah. They put this report out once a year. And really, what it tried to measure is what are the levels of engagement globally and regionally across the globe? And for example, this last report includes over 280,000 respondents across a number of industries and institutions. And they seek certain information, but what they're trying to measure is how engaged is the workforce, both in those regions, and there are about 10 regions, and what does it look like globally? Wow. And not just engagement, questions around thriving, questions around how lonely do you feel, how sad do you feel? Is it a good time to find a job? And so it's a very makes for a very interesting reading. It is 251 pages long, but listeners don't worry. We're just going to riff very quickly on the headline.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Oh no. Exactly, exactly. So the question that we want to just have a start with, KG, is what does global employee engagement look like? Yes. How is it? What's the health of that engagement? And you know, on page 18, we're going to jump right there. The global engagement is a stunning 20%.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I know, I know. It doesn't sound very high.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Doesn't sound great. So for those of you who are familiar with engagement surveys, when someone is engaged, it's like they're they're mostly exhibiting increased discretionary effort. In other words, people who are more than willing to take a step up in their work, even though no one's asked them, to put in a little bit more effort, to work a bit harder, whatever it might be. And that's the people often that are seen as engaged. Yeah. Not simple, and it's not just simply because they're working more. You know, they're very connected to maybe the purpose of the organization or its mission or their manager or their team. And they're happy to contribute to the success of that team or organization. That's what an engaged person means. Now, of the 20% that are engaged, that's nice. But what we have to now remember is that 64% are not engaged.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Now, it basically means that they're not putting any discretionary effort in. Maybe they're just ticking the boxes. Don't know. I don't know what that exactly means. But the other interesting number is, of course, that 16 are actively disengaged. That's the one that stands out. Yeah, they're just looking for new another job, or they're not showing up, or they have high levels of absenteeism. They're just not interested. You know, in some cases, it could even be undermining. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Because it feels like when you're not engaged, you're probably a little closer to neutral. You're not fully connected and all of that. But if you're actively disengaged, then that means you're on the other side in some way. So you're doing something to disconnect yourself from the organization. And like you said, I could just be looking for another gig. But to me, it's interesting because it's so close to the level of engagement, right? So 16%, I don't know, from a statistical standpoint, maybe it's not close, but it feels close to me.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

It's pretty close. If there's only four percentage points in it, it's it's pretty close.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

But interestingly, the Gallup poll or the Gallup report, I mean, I have to admit, I haven't deep dived into the report, but the bits that I have read, it doesn't really provide a causation analysis. It simply provides the figures and says, this is what they are, this is what they are in these regions, this is what it's like across these types of roles, but they don't explain why. So the why is still quite a mystery. We just know the numbers, we don't know what's causing it. What happens, of course, is that that does lead to strange interpretations of the data. For example, you have a situation where the global engagement is 20%, for example, right? However, the life evaluation, in other words, are you thriving? Are you struggling or are you suffering? Those questions they don't always correlate with the engagement.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

So let me give you an example. So the question is, are you thriving? Right. So your best guess, do you think you're thriving now? Where do you personally feel you stand at this time? And globally, 34% of respondents, that's the 200 odd thousand, 34% said, yep, I'm thriving.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Now, if we go back to the engagement question, where we had a global engagement of 20%, if we break that down into regions, say the US and Canada, 31% engaged, slightly better, a third better than global. At the very bottom, you have Europe as a region.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

12% engaged, right? 12%. That's very however on the thriving measure, where the thriving percentage globally is 34%, Europe is fourth at 49%.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yes. Which is interesting.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

On one hand, it's weird, isn't it? One hand, 12% engagement for the European employee. However, 49% thriving. So he goes from 10th on the engaged ranking of the 10 regions to fourth. I don't know how that works. I really don't.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

It sounds a little bit weird, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:17

And then you've got your your other questions around do you experience this particular emotion a lot during the day? And did you experience it a lot yesterday? And one of those emotions is stress. So globally, 40% indicated that the previous day that had experienced stress.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

40%, right? Now here's the other interesting thing. The US, if you break that down regionally, the US and Canada, 50% of respondents said that they experienced stress yesterday. However, the US and Canada are the highest of the engaged regions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mind you, the bar is quite low at 31%. But nevertheless, they are both the highest at engagement and the highest at stress.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

At stress, yes. They're both, right? They're fully committed and stressed about it. And look at Australia. I mean, we're we're we're a little bit at odds, I think, because you know, like you're saying, as far as stress, we're number two. We're 49% stressed. We're 49, man. But we display that a different way because our engagement in Australia, whoop, whoop, 21%. So we're right at the global average, basically. So we're highly not engaged, I guess, and stressed to boot.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Except that the complicating statistic there is that in the thriving category, yeah, you know, are you thriving? Australia is second. Australia, New Zealand second at 55%. So we are both second in thriving, yeah, but we are also second in stress.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

So what's what is going on?

SPEAKER_02 9:02

But I'm telling you, it's lies, damn lies, and statistics. That's what it is. That's right. To quote Mark Twain. But there's other some other interesting uh, you know, and we're not doing clearly, we're not doing this justice, nor perhaps are we showing the respect to this report that it might deserve, but that's okay. The other interesting thing, yeah, there are a couple of other interesting feeling categories that I think is worth pointing out. For example, did you experience anger a lot of the day yesterday? Wow. Did you experience anger? Globally, it's 22%. So 22% of respondents experienced anger.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

And it's a lot of the day, so not just you know, fleeting.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

No, a lot of the day.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah, the majority of your day or a a great part of your day, you were just spuming.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yeah, imagine just being pissed off all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

All day.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot of energy, man. It's a lot of energy. Yes, and interestingly, yeah, the regions are show a lot of difference, but in terms of respondents and age, 22% of females feeling anger, 22% of males feel anger. Okay, 23% of people under 35 feel anger, and 22% of people of 35 or more feel anger. So it's still it's a lot of people are feeling angry.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yeah, and it's across the board.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

What is going on? Yeah, managers 25%, individual contributors, 21%, people who are working only remotely, 25% angry, people who are only on site, 22% angry, not a lot of difference, and the hybrid, 23% angry. So for some reason, we're just all angry. Oh no, people are just angry. Interestingly, though, uh, if we go back to the broader global engagement categories, people who work exclusively remotely are 30% engaged, people who are on site but could be remote are 24% engaged. So once again, I don't know what the causation is. Um, and people who are on site but unable to do anything remotely, so that could be people who have a particular role or job where it can't be done remotely, they're 17% engaged. So they fall below the global average. So there's some interesting ways of cutting this data and slicing it, but there are some weird anomalies, things that I don't understand. What did strike me though is that uh where was it? I think in one of the initial pages of the report, it's uh it made me laugh. The headline is this in 2025, global employee well-being improved for the first time in three years. What? Yes, applause, applause, applause. Yeah, it's yeah, it's until you start looking at the figures, right? So it improved by one percentage point, yeah. And it's it's actually still lower than it was three years ago. So it's an interesting headline. Come on, people, come on, come on, right? So the whole surviving percentage three years ago was 35%. We then dropped to 34, dropped to 33, and then we're back up to 34. So I think that just having it each way, presenting perhaps a rosier picture than what it's really looking like. Because really, this looks dire. I mean, this looks dire across so many categories. Global engagement in and of itself as a trend is absolutely flat. So it's 20% in 2025. Remember, this is the 2026 report. Three years ago it was 23%. Yeah. Before that, 23%, then 21%, 20%, 22%. So since 2019, even through the pandemic, it is, if you like, in terms of statistically speaking, fairly flat. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, there is a quite a significant movement from when they first started creating the report back in 2009, when they did this first report, engagement was global engagement was at a dire 12%. It was trending up quite consistently until 2018, at which point where it kind of got to 19, then it kind of went to 22 in 2019.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

And then it dropped to 20, dropped to 21, then it got got up again, and now it's back again to 20. So it's kind of flat. So it's an interesting picture of the global engagement of employees. You know, 80% are not engaged.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and I look at that number and it is equivalent to what it was during the pandemic or the year of the pandemic. So that's what's uh it just it's interesting to me. And you know, we we like you said went up to 23%, you know, it kind of started looking like it's trending uh forward, people are getting more engaged, and then it has definitely but doesn't look like it has, doesn't it? No, no, it's definitely had a backslide. So um don't know why. Don't know don't know why.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Don't know why the causation is not clear, but interestingly, if you're gonna split even those engagement levels between managers and non-managers, yeah, page seven, for example, yeah, you got managers in 2022 were markedly more engaged than non-managers who were at 20. Same thing for 2023, managers were at 30, non-managers at 18. It was flat in 2024 for non-managers who stayed at 18, but we see a reasonable decline in managers' engagement to 27.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

And then 2025, this last set of data, management engagement has just dropped considerably. So back in 2022 it was 31, 2025, 22. So the gap is closing because non-manager engagement, he's up to 19. The gap is very, very small, if not insignificant.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, so really it's the managers that's bringing the levels down, right? And non-managers kind of have stayed fairly consistent across the board. And those manager levels have definitely plummeted. So what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Yeah, well, you know, it yeah, this does suggest that, yeah, maybe managers are expected to do a lot more or have a larger span of control. And the drop in management engagement correlates to increased levels of or increased spans of control. So it's it's harder to throw your arms around perhaps the role that you're doing now if you're a manager, it's just too big. And therefore the inference is that you're you disengage. But there's another thing too. I mean, there is so much in this report that just throws me off. They talk about uh, you know, they say, okay, the current engagement globally is 22%. In the US, for example, it's 36%. But they say they compare that to what they call best practice organizations. And they say best practice organizations engagement is at 79. But I'm calling BS on that. I am totally calling BS. If the global trend has been in the 30s for the last 10 to 13 years, yeah, yeah, where the hell are they getting best practice organization figures from?

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Who are those companies? And you can't just get one isolated organization. It's just very strange. It's a strange methodology to me. I'm sure smarter people in statistical analysis are going to clarify this for us, but it's weird. It's like 79% of managers are engaged in best practice organizations. And I'm thinking, man, you know, I don't believe you.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yes, it it just feels a little bit disingenuous, sometimes are gaming the system, right? Because we know we we've been in a part of those organizations where they put a lot of effort into increasing that engagement and kind of coaching you about don't put neutral because that's basically it's negative if you're gonna do, you know, so there's a lot of coaching and there's a lot of work that goes into that. So yeah, they could they could be definitely improving their numbers, but it almost feels like those are the kind of organizations that you throw out of the survey because they would skew the the results so wildly, 70% versus 20%. That just sounds like let's take that out and know that it's probably just not right in some way.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Yeah. Let's wrap up a little bit by just looking at a couple of trends. Okay. I just want to comment on a couple of trends. So we've talked about these emotions, right? So let's look at anger. We say we said it globally 22% were pissed off yesterday all day. Now, the trend for anger, once again, doesn't paint a happy picture. The lowest it goes is 16%, but it's been pretty flat since 2021. Now, 2020 it peaked at 24, so maybe that was pandemically related. Yeah, people were more angry, but it's been pretty flat. So over time, the trend, nothing's changed that I can see here. In fact, the trend since 2009 has been going up from 19 to 22 on in the present day.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

The other one that I want to talk about in terms of trend is this notion of sadness, you know, whether people feel sad. Would you feel sad a lot of the day yesterday? And globally, it's yes, 23%. 23% feeling sad. Yeah. Now it peaked at 25 also in 2020. So I'm guessing, once again, maybe pandemic related, but it started in 2009 at 16, dropped a point or two in the following years, and then it's just been steadily rising. So people talk about a pandemic, like a loneliness pandemic, particularly amongst men. But here there is also a sadness pandemic, and maybe there's even an anger pandemic, whatever that looks like. So there seems to be increasing trends in very deep, intense emotions for people in the workforce. I don't know why they're appearing, I don't know why they're they're lingering, but they're there.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

And yet there are some trends as well that are regional. I don't want to necessarily go into that, but if you're interested in how do the regions compare in terms of how they experience emotion, have a look at the report. We'll put a link in the show notes. But there's a weird sort of trend around sadness. And finally, the what trend that I thought I want to finish on, but you might also have some other thoughts, KG. I just mentioned the loneliness pandemic, or what is often been called the loneliness pandemic. It's at 22%. They've only really started taking a measure of that since 2023.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

In 2023, it was 20, 2024, it was 22, and 2025 is also 22. So it's still pretty early. But you know how that people often say that this loneliness pandemic is really about the male psyche. Well, this report gives us none of that. 21% of females have reported loneliness a lot of the day in the previous day. And 22% of males have reported loneliness. So it's a statistically insignificant difference. Yeah, it's neck and neck. It's neck and neck. So this loneliness thing, it's happening across gender and it's happening and it's trending, it's flattening out, but it's still 22%. It's really interesting how that works and what that looks like. And I just don't know what questions can people be asked. If this has been going on for such a long time, is if sadness has been increasing for 16 years, if anger has been increasing for 12 years, what are we not doing? What what are we not asking? What conversations are we not having? I'm baffled. I am really, I mean, I don't know the answers to those questions. I know. If someone dies, I don't know them. Yeah, but if someone dies, or if you know someone who dies, let us know.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Just please, please let us know. Uh send us a a note, give us your analysis, you know, tell us what you've done to correct some of this, because it is, you know, the numbers are, I'd say, a little bit disturbing, you know, because you think, you know, that's that's a lot of people who are angry. And a lot of people who are sad and disengaged overall.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

A lot of people who are disengaged. That is the there was an uptick somewhere. So hey. There's an uptick somewhere. Sure. You know, once you dig into the numbers, you might get a little bit skeptical. But let's finish on that note. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

That uptick, that's positive.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

And if you're out there and you are feeling sad or you are feeling angry, I am hoping that your organization has some sort of EAP service, the employee assistance program. Yeah, just reach out, have a chat to somebody. It's uh it's good to talk out some of these feelings with somebody who knows what they're doing. Yeah, just be attentive to your own well-being. Very important, I think.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Yeah, and and the people around you, just to uh look up for each other and try to arrest some of these trends if we can, but most of all, just take care of yourself and hopefully, hopefully, um, we can be a part of that uptick. So way too about it.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Now, if if you are yeah, well you know, but it's on brand, man. You know, you're a very optimistic fellow. But look, if you want to engage with us and talk to us, or you have an idea or thought about what's happening, uh, what are some of the possible causes of of this of these figures, or maybe you have an experience at work that correlates to these sorts of engagements. Uh, let us know. One thing we've just recently done is making it make it easier for you to leave a message to us. You'll see in the show notes there's a link that says leave us a message or send us a message. Yeah, just click on that or or touch that. It'll take you to a little page where it gives you the option of either sending us a text, regardless of where you are in the world, you can send us a text, or a voice message. We'd love that. So give it a shot. We're trying to increase people's engagement with us. We're keen to hear what you are thinking and experiencing in the workplace and in your leadership practice. Send us a message, send us a text, or a voice message, just click on that little link in the show notes, it'll take you right there.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Love it, love it. Yes, please do that. And you know, with that, Paul, I I I think it's time to do the normal, and we'll say thank you everyone for hanging with us and that is our cheeky half episode.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Please let us know what you think, whether you'd like us to expand on any of these topics in our main episodes, or any other comment you might have. You can reach us on askus at leadershipdocanton.com. That's as kus at leadershipdocanton.com. You can also leave your comments for each of our episodes on our website at leadershipdocanton.com. Thanks for listening.