British workers among saddest, loneliest and most disengaged in Europe, report finds
British workers are among the saddest, loneliest and most disengaged in Europe, according to a report released by Gallup today.
The Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2025 report, which has tracked global employee wellbeing since 2009, listed British employees as the second saddest in Europe last year, beaten only by Northern Cyprus. Some 26 per cent of UK workers reported daily feelings of sadness and 17 per cent daily loneliness.
On top of that, UK workers came out among the most disengaged in Europe. Only 10 per cent of British workers said they felt engaged at work in 2024, down from 20 per cent in 2009 and placing the UK workforce as the 30th most disengaged in Europe. Meanwhile, Europe as a region ranked last in employee engagement globally.
Globally, employee engagement fell two per cent in 2024, marking only the second time the metric has declined in the last 12 years, the other time being 2020.
Gallup said the fall in employee engagement came at a $438bn cost in lost productivity to the world economy in 2024, and estimated that a fully engaged workforce could add nine per cent to global GDP.
Stressed managers leading to low employee engagement
Stressed-out managers were cited as the primary cause for the fall in employee engagement overall, with the report citing long-term hangover effects of the pandemic, new employee expectations regarding flexible work and pressures to keep up with AI as putting managers under increased strain.
Young (under-35) and female managers were found to be particularly affected, with these groups reporting the most significant falls in engagement in the last five years.
“Engagement is going backwards despite all of the surveys and extra HR support. This is not a survey issue. It is not an HR issue. This is a leadership and management issue,” Jeremie Brecheisen, managing partner of Gallup EMEA, said.
“70 per cent of the variance in engagement is due to the direct manager of the team. Unless the UK changes its philosophy on manager selection and development, the problems will persist,” he continued.
Brecheisen said lack of managerial training in the UK was a particular issue, with poorly trained managers having an adverse impact on the whole workforce. “Few managers report getting the training they need to do their jobs right. They are more stressed than the employees they serve,” he said.
According to the survey, 41 per cent of British workers felt daily stress in 2024. Incredibly, it means British workers count themselves as even more stressed out than those in war zone Ukraine, where only 28 per cent of workers reported daily stress in 2024.
American and Canadian workers came out as the most engaged overall, but also the most stressed out of all 10 regions (US and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, East Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Post-Soviet Eurasia).
Gallup defines disengaged employees as resentful that their needs are not being met at work, with the potential to undermine what their engaged workers are doing. Meanwhile, recognition for good work, feeling that they have a purpose and having a supervisor that cares about them as a person were all factors contributing to what the report defined as an engaged employee.