North America’s shrinking workforce is feeling burned out and pessimistic

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Pessimism over the job market and engagement can be attributed to many factors, according to Wayne Hochwarter, a business administration professor at Florida State University, including geopolitical tensions, higher gas prices, AI, the war, and other pressures. But he said the root problem is simple: inadequate and inept leadership.

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“That’s a perfect storm in a lot of ways with the economy and everything else, but this is just leaders not doing their job.”

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Managers are the weak spot, according to Harter, and their engagement has fallen faster than that of individual contributors.

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“When manager engagement drops, it really affects the commitment of the workforce because they kind of lead the way,” he added.

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Companies can improve engagement by choosing and training better managers, ensuring they are leaders who can “motivate teams, build relationships, support AI adoption, set goals, give regular feedback, and hold employees accountable.”

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Peters also thinks better training could help, but she says managers are facing pressure to do more with fewer resources while often lacking the authority and support they need to succeed.

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She and Hochwarter noted how most managers don’t know how to manage remote and hybrid teams, for example, which hurts performance and leads to greater disengagement.

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This is all exacerbating post-pandemic burnout, leading to something Hochwarter has dubbed “quiet cracking,” a situation where workers who feel stuck just do the bare minimum to keep their jobs.

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“It’s similar to quiet quitting, but you don’t quit. Because the job market is not really too supportive of people leaving,  people look at their job descriptions, and they look at what are the very basic things I need to do here to keep my job.”

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Gallup isn’t alone in pointing to disengagement and lost optimism.

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Sandra LaVoy, regional VP with staffing firm Robert Half in Canada, said she is concerned by rising burnout levels, a trend driven by heavy workloads, long hours, and shrunken teams post-COVID.

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Burnout in Canada has risen to a whopping 62 per cent, according to a new Robert Half survey, which is up from 47 per cent in 2024.

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The fields and demographics hit the hardest, LaVoy said, include legal (tops the list), human resources, working parents, millennials, and finance/accounting.

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“I hear more about burnout now than ever,” she added.

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Younger workers are among the most pessimistic, according to Gallup. Just 20 per cent of workers aged 18 to 34 say it’s a good time to look for a job, compared to 41 per cent for those 65 years old and older. For younger workers in both countries, unemployment is nearly double the national rates, which explains some of the pessimism.

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“Thirty years ago, clients would … go to the universities and recruit for the summer,” said LaVoy.

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But now, junior commodity transactional roles, she said, have been reduced by AI, so those junior roles aren’t there for summer hires, she added.

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So how do we boost engagement and job market optimism to turn things around for everyone?

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Food, energy, and housing-price stability would help people feel more confident overall, said Peters, freeing workers to take on more career risks.

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Hochwarter stresses the need to make resilient hires, train them properly, build trust through transparency, and build a culture that applauds lifelong learning with incentives.

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“I think you have to set up that environment, and you have to motivate people, but you also have to reward it,” he said.