The Great Detachment is looming for employees, experts warn — especially for Gen Z

• Employee disengagement is a major challenge, costing more than $8 trillion globally.
• Gen Zers, known for quiet quitting, are leading the charge in setting work boundaries.

The world's workforce is disengaged, and the "Great Detachment" is looming.

According to experts, employees across all industries are increasingly engaging in "productivity theater" and performative busyness to get through their workday.

And Gen Zers, as the cohort associated with "quiet quitting" and a job being just a job, are leading the charge.

They are on track to outnumber boomers in the workforce this year and are expected to make up 27% of it by 2025.

But while it may be easy to blame the youngest generation of workers for the disconnect, it's not the full story.

What older generations see as discontent and laziness may instead be a result of Zoomers setting boundaries and not being afraid to voice them.

The cost of disengagement

The drop in employee engagement levels across the world is the "biggest challenge" companies are facing, according to Richard Wahlquist, the CEO of the American Staffing Association.

It's also expensive. Gallup data estimates it could cost more than $8 trillion globally, and employees who are not engaged cost their companies the equivalent of 18% of their annual salary.

"We've got a vast majority of workers in every single office that are either not engaged or actively disengaged," Wahlquist told Business Insider, citing Gallup data that shows that just roughly three in 10 employees are actively engaged.

"The others are either kind of neutral, they would leave for another job that pays more," Wahlquist said. "And then there's about 17% who are actively disengaged, they are unhappy. They will say unhappy things about you and your company."

According to Gallup data this year, millennials and Gen Zers are seeing the biggest drop in engagement. Millennials have dropped seven points, from 39% to 32% being actively engaged, while actively engaged Gen Zers have dropped from 40% to 35%.

The percentage of actively disengaged millennials has risen from 12% to 17%, while for Zoomers, it has increased from 13% to 14%.

A unique moment

Employee detachment is not an entirely new problem and has plagued companies for a long time.

"Employee engagement has been a topic of conversation for decades now," Leena Rinne, the global head of coaching at Skillsoft, told BI. "But there is something unique about this moment."

COVID-19 played a part, with people being physically disconnected from their jobs and having their lives turned upside down.

"Even as we're coming back to work, some of that connection is being forced, or it's not natural," Rinne said.

Rinne added that the younger generation is assumed to be less committed to their roles, but they're also seeing that maybe their company "is a little less committed to them."

They saw their parents lose their jobs and their footing during the pandemic, and it changed what they value.

"I don't know how much to invest in the organization when there are moments of fear, disruption, and anxiety," Rinne said. "I think it's a natural human emotion to pull back rather than lean in if I'm not sure."

This is particularly relevant in the past year, where middle management positions are being axed, the tech bubble has burst, and social media has been flooded with personal stories of layoffs.

"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 said. "There's a crisis of trust."

Overall, though, Rinne believes a lack of engagement is a symptom, not the problem. She hasn't met many people who genuinely have a desire to be a poor employee and want to do a bad job.

"But we meet the moment, we meet the conditions that we're in," she said. "Gen Z is showing up in a given way because they feel that's how the company's showing up for them."

Gen Z is voicing boundaries

Khyati Sundaram, the CEO of Applied, told BI she sees the disconnection crisis a little differently.

Gen Zers value work-life balance and transparency above all else. They believe mental health days should be offered as a given, and they want equal paternity and maternity leave.

"All of those things, they were not normal for somebody who worked 30 or 20 years ago," Sundaram said. "That's creating discontent on both sides, between managers and Gen Zs who are now entering the workforce and maybe becoming managers in 10 to 20 years time."

There's a difference between underperforming and feeling disengaged and setting boundaries, Sundaram added.

"Gen Zs are getting stereotyped because they're voicing it," she said. "It's not new. It's the voicing it that's new. And the judgment that comes associated with that."

A survey from Applied of 2,001 UK adults, sent over to BI in an email, found that almost half (47%) of Gen Z workers had a career gap of six months or more and were four times more likely to take time out to travel.

Zoomers are also known to job hop and will quit jobs that they find unenjoyable or unfulfilling with no backup plan.

While older generations may see this as youngsters being flaky and unreliable, Gen Zers see their time off and their decisiveness as valuable ways to build skills and understand what they want.

"I think many employers are lagging behind about things that Gen Zs care about, such as sustainability, diversity, and mental health support," Sundaram said. "I think they're very positive, reasonable things to look for at work because, ultimately, everybody wants a great life."

It's hard to make these kinds of changes, but even an acknowledgment of the things Gen Zs value would go a long way, Sundaram said.

"But that takes a lot of work," she said.

The solution

Part of the solution is for workplaces to start engaging with their employees and making them feel valued, Rinne said.

But building a culture of trust where people turn up to work and feel safe doesn't happen by accident.

"It's not magic," Rinne said. "It has to be very intentional, it has to be desired, and then it has to have specific effort around it. We don't default into a relationship of trust — we have to build that."

People, overall, want to feel like their work matters, and "that's not rocket science," Rinne said.

"People still need that human moment, that human connection," she said. "There has to be intention and thought and budget, candidly, put behind the initiatives that we know will drive better outcomes with people."

For example, Skillsoft found that when leaders were provided coaching for all these things, there was a 41% increase in their engagement in their role after six months. Leaders create culture, Rinne said, "so if your leader is more engaged, then how they lead is improved."

"If you're looking at culture, results, innovation, creativity, all of those things are better when we invest in our teams a little bit," Rinne said. "In everyone — not just one generation, every single person."