The Great Gloom: Employees unhappier than ever, report finds

Employees are unhappier today than even during the pandemic as the end of the Great Resignation may be signaling a Great Gloom.

“The new norm of ‘unprecedented times’ is causing enormous stress,” said Brad Rencher, CEO of software company BambooHR. “Today’s complex problems will require leaders to be proactive, adaptive and data-informed to beat back the Great Gloom. To succeed in a rapidly evolving world, businesses will need to prioritize employee experience in real, meaningful ways like never before. Anything less than a holistic approach to developing the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of each employee, in addition to their skills, will fall short.”

BambooHR released its Employee Happiness Index, which is based on an analysis of more than 57,000 unique eNPS responses in BambooHR’s platform from global workers across eight key industries. The average satisfaction score has fallen by 16% since June 2020 and by 11% from June 2022 to June 2023. The continuing downward trend of employee dissatisfaction has seen less volatility over time, demonstrating how entrenched the trend has become. The index breaks down satisfaction rates by industry:

• Health care. Employee happiness has dropped 32% in the last three years, and half of that drop occurred in 2023 alone.
• Education. From June 2022 to June 2023, education workers’ happiness fell 5%, which was twice as fast as during the previous two years.
• Construction. The happiest industry is construction, as deep backlogs of work and high residential demand have created coveted job stability and increased wages. The industry’s average score for 2023 has remained steady.
• Non-profit and travel and hospitality. Both nonprofit and travel and hospitality happiness are slightly increasing this year as they continue to rebound from the pandemic, despite still ranking low on happiness overall.
• Restaurant, food and beverage. Average satisfaction has fallen by 31% since June 2020, with little sign of recovery, having dropped 8% just since June of last year.
• Technology. Tech sector cores have dropped off a cliff, declining about 3.5 times faster than previous years. Average tech employee happiness scores declined 14% from June of last year to June of 2023.
• Finance. With a less dramatic decline but higher volatility, finance’s eroding happiness is tied to similar factors as tech — shrinking venture capital, bank closures, massive layoffs and return-to-office mandates.

Read more: Recognizing signs of unhappiness and empowering a joyful workplace

Disengaged employees cost the global economy upwards of $8.8 trillion, according to Gallup.

“HR is often viewed solely as a tactical administrative function without any meaningful metrics,” said Anita Grantham, head of HR for BambooHR. “However, any leadership team that is only tracking sales and marketing performance is being irresponsible and overlooking their largest cost center — their people.”