Workplace stagnation

Only about a third of U.S. employees are engaged—i.e., involved in, enthusiastic about and/or committed to their jobs—according to Gallup’s recent phone survey of 80,844 employed adults. The researchers considered whether employees were engaged based on their ratings of workplace elements such as having the opportunity to do their best every day, feeling encouraged to develop and believing their opinions count. Engagement is strongly tied to worker productivity, company profits and customer satisfaction. Disengaged workers tend to be “checked out,” or simply kill time, and do the minimum required to stay employed. Just more than half—50.8 percent—of respondents were not engaged, Gallup found, and 17.2 percent were “actively disengaged.”