Dissatisfied employees are looking to quit but finding themselves at a standstill

Self-reported turnover risk hasn’t been this high since 2015, finds Gallup in a newly released survey based on responses from more than 19,800 adults this past May. While 51% of employees are watching or actively searching for a new job, many are finding their aspirations tamped down by an incredibly competitive and tricky job market that’s defined by a long and often trying application process. 

It leaves workers, particularly younger ones, feeling like they’re trudging along in a job they’re not all that invested in. While managers are touted as one of the solutions to bridging the broken contract between companies and employees, they have just as much (if not more) of a case of the doldrums. 

“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, co-author of the report and director of research for Gallup’s workplace management practice, told Fortune. And the younger the employee is, the more likely they are to be searching for a new opportunity, perhaps due to greater dissatisfaction or a desire for more leverage by nature of being earlier on in their career.  

That all means that people who might have struck while the iron was hot just a couple years ago during the Great Resignation are left feeling stagnant, checking into their jobs while checked out. “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,” Wigert added. He called this new era the “Great Detachment.”

Reeling from the end of the Great Resignation 

It’s no surprise that workers’ commitment to their employers is the lowest it’s been in almost a decade. COVID-19,  recent AI-related layoffs, and soaring corporate profits amid sluggish wage growth have only further proven that when it comes to crunch time, employees are seen as replaceable. 

The pandemic and a strong labor market gave people the chance to act on existentialism and leave for jobs that valued them more, or at least paid them better. Now the workforce is still feeling similar levels of disenchantment, but is too constrained to leave. So marks the new phase post the Great Resignation, the Great Detachment as marked by a pervasive disengagement with one’s job and desire to leave as constrained by a market that makes it seem (depending on the sector) virtually impossible to go elsewhere. “Quiet quitting,” or not going above and beyond for a job is a natural byproduct of this feeling of boredom and waning contact between employers and employees in this current workforce wave.

“The favorable job market created by the Great Resignation, and to an extent by the pandemic, reset what employees expect from their employer. After watching others’ careers benefit greatly, employees have much higher expectations for what a great job looks like,” said Wigert, speaking of a sharp drop in employee engagement from record highs in early 2020. The change indicates “employees have become progressively less satisfied with their job and less committed to their employers.” 

The term quiet quitting came with a lot of forced hubbub this fall, but what was painted as employee slacking has proven to be much more about the bosses’ lackluster performance. In reality, disengaged workers can be brought back into the fold with a company that uses good communication and is committed to change. “Pep rallies and empty promises will only further frustrate them,” says Wigert. He notes that two of the biggest reasons for the dip in engagement was an increase in employees feeling disconnected from their work’s mission and reports of unclear expectations.

Unsurprisingly, low pay is another driver of workers’ desire to leave their jobs. Additional benefits or compensation was the top potential factor that could have kept employees from leaving (at 30%), according to a separate Gallup survey of 717 individuals who quit their jobs this past year. Even so, 70% of the other responses about what would have prevented employees from leaving fell under the umbrella of how they were managed on a daily basis, including more positive interactions with their manager (21%), and creating career advancement opportunities (11%).

What companies can do to turn it around

All this leaving and feeling of ennui is avoidable. Of those who left their jobs within this past year, 42% said their manager or company could have done something to stop them from quitting. 

“Managers simply are not showing-up for their employees,” Corey Tatel, co-author of the report and research associate at Gallup, told Fortune, pointing to a lack of communication between dissatisfied employees and their bosses. Almost half (45%) of those surveyed said that they did not have a “constructive conversation” with their bosses about their satisfaction or future in their job up to three months before they left.

“ The foundation for engagement and retention is having an authentic relationship with your manager, which includes meaningful, two-way conversations on a regular basis,” Tatel adds. Funnily enough, it’s the managers who have the highest “looking to leave” sentiment (55% compared to 41% of leaders, and 51% of individual contributors), the researchers tell Fortune. These middle managers are likely also experiencing a crunch as they deal with their team’s disenchantment as well as their own.