On the Clock But Mentally Checked Out: Managers Say They’re Increasingly Disengaged at Work
Engagement at work is continuing its downward trend, but there’s a new metric that has workforce analysts concerned: lower engagement among managers now accounts for most of the recent downturn in employee engagement.
Just 22 percent of managers said they felt engaged at work in 2025—compared to 20 percent of all other employees who responded to Gallup’s annual State of the Global Workforce report published this week. The 2025 figures marked a 5 percent drop in manager engagement from 2024, the largest year-over-year change Gallup has tracked since it began compiling the report in 2009.
Gallup defines the employee engagement spectrum into three broad categories:
- Engaged employees. These employees say they are thriving at work because they’re highly involved and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. They are often “psychological owners” who drive performance and innovation to move the organization forward.
- Not engaged employees. These employees are unattached to their work and the company, putting time into their jobs but not energy or passion.
- Actively disengaged employees. These employees are resentful about their unmet needs and are acting out because of it. They actively work to undermine what their engaged counterparts are accomplishing.
In 2025, 20 percent of employees reported feeling engaged, 64 percent reported feeling not engaged, and 16 percent said they were actively disengaged at work. Some people might say that feeling engaged is a nice to have benefit of work, but Gallup has found that there are real costs for companies that have disengaged workforces. In 2025, low engagement cost the world economy roughly $10 trillion in lost productivity—or 9 percent of GDP. The ramifications can be especially impactful for profitability and sales.
“While engagement occurs at the team level, employees who are not engaged or actively disengaged lead to less profitable organizations, which, in turn, translates into lower economic growth,” the report explained.
Mid-level managers might feel this pressure the most. They often have “thankless jobs, taking incoming flak from above and below,” says Kathy Lavinder, founder and executive director of SI Placement. “They need real support and encouragement. They might be really good at their jobs, internalizing a lot of negativity and sometimes keeping that from senior leaders.”
There are also unique risk factors for security practitioners that can exacerbate the feelings of disengagement at work. Many security teams are globally dispersed, potentially creating loneliness, disconnection, and lower productivity, Lavinder adds.
“It’s certainly harder to foster a team dynamic with far flung employees, many of whom have not met all their colleagues in person and almost certainly come from different cultures, backgrounds, and generations,” Lavinder explains.
The nature of work in the security profession can also play a role, says John Rodriguez, who founded Empathic Security Cultures after years as a corporate security executive.
“Experiencing a company employee’s suicide, sexual assault, or internal investigation involving child sexual exploitation on a company computer can be emotionally traumatic and long lasting,” he explains. “Self-care is critical and a security leaders’ responsibility to their team is paramount.”
The AI Effect
In the latest report, Gallup assessed what impact artificial intelligence (AI) is having on employee engagement levels at work. Sixty-five percent of U.S. workers said that AI has had “somewhat” or “extremely” positive impacts on their productivity, but only 12 percent agreed that AI has transformed how work gets done in their organization.
“One way of thinking about employee engagement is as a measure of readiness for change,” the report said. “AI is a major disruption; organizations with engaged employees tend to navigate disruptions more successfully. In the age of AI, productivity gains will depend in part on how effectively individual workers use these tools. Disengagement will erode those gains, and active disengagement could create serious security risks.”
Gallup further identified two drivers for frequent AI use within organizations: the technology’s integration with existing systems and manager-led AI adoption. Within U.S. organizations that have invested in AI technology, employees who strongly agree that their manager actively supports their team’s use of AI are 8.7 times as likely to agree AI has transformed how work gets done at their organization and 7.4 times as likely to agree that AI gives them opportunities to do what they do best every day.
“Despite these clear benefits, many employees report a lack of active support from their managers,” according to the report. “Less than a third of U.S. employees in organizations that have begun implementing AI technologies strongly agree their manager actively supports their team’s use of the technology. A Gallup study in Germany found similarly low support: 21 percent of employees in organizations that use AI said their manager actively supports their team’s use of AI.”
Ter Govang, an ASIS International CSO Center member, says she’s less concerned with tentative AI adoption than she is with the “oversaturation” of large language model use that is eroding cognitive engagement that makes security professionals interesting and effective.
“The groundwork that builds competence, the analysis, the hard calls, the pattern recognition that comes from experience, gets shortcut,” Govang adds. “We stop exercising the muscle, and disengagement follows.”
She also says that hesitancy to engage with AI isn’t the real problem—the bigger issue is managers who adopt the technology without appropriate governance.
“Before championing a tool to your team, define the boundaries. What requires human decision-making? What gets disclosed? Who is accountable for output?” she says. “ASIS Code of Conduct Article IV is a useful anchor: members shall not claim competence they don’t possess. And that extends to the capabilities we deploy on behalf of the organizations we serve.
“Get back to fundamentals. Coach, mentor, and develop your people,” Govang continues. “Use AI to create capacity for that work, never to replace it. And be unapologetic about that. The people and the clients will thank you.”
Next Steps for Security Managers
The disengagement trend during the past year is not encouraging. But there are real steps that executives can take to disrupt it, including security leaders who oversee geographically diverse teams.
“Managers must address this challenging dynamic directly and devise approaches to build esprit de corps. Emphasizing the shared mission of keeping people safe can motivate some, as security tends to attract mission driven individuals.
“It’s also important to recognize—and reward—those employees who meet or exceed expectations for productive teamwork,” Lavinder continues.
Security leaders should watch for signs of disengagement and have proactive plans to support less engaged team members, Lavinder says.
“Managers should maintain an open-door policy and conduct regular check-ins with everyone on the team,” she explains. “Everyone benefits when managers are attuned to attitudes, complaints, frustrations, and inevitable pain points.”
When someone raises a point of frustration to their manager, Lavinder also recommends to not respond with something like, “This is the way it is and we’re all in this together.” Instead, ask the individual, “What do you think? What can we do to strengthen and improve the team”
“Empowering people is essential. But managers must go beyond listening to acting, by addressing issues that can be improved and being honest when there are bigger issues outside their control,” Lavinder adds.
Senior leadership also needs to provide front-line managers opportunities to offload their stress and feel heard and supported.
“When individuals feel overwhelmed, they can not only disconnect but also burn out,” Lavinder says.
On an individual level, Rodriguez suggests separating feelings of disengagement at work into what is happening at work and home that could be contributing to this feeling, and defining what you can control.
“Study the physiological concept of reappraisal or reframing and labeling what your emotion is at any given time, and what the event or stimulus was that made you emotionally react that way,” Rodriguez says.
For instance, self-identifying that it made you feel disrespected when a colleague cut you off during a presentation, that that reaction was normal, and that you’re going to let go of it to not let it ruin the rest of your day.
“When someone cuts us off on the road, it can spark anger within you or you can just say, ‘Another day, another jerk that doesn’t drive right. But it’s not going to trigger me,’” he adds.
When comparing leaders, managers, project managers, and individual contributors, Gallup found that higher levels of leadership reported higher levels of engagement and wellbeing. But they also were more likely to experience a lot of stress, anger, sadness, and loneliness on the previous day.
“Although leadership can give individuals a greater sense of voice, agency, and status, it can also mean greater social distance and the responsibility for making painful choices that affect many people’s lives,” according to the report.
To effectively manage stress without becoming disengaged, Lavinder says she reverts to her parenting days when she judged a crisis by asking, “Is anyone bleeding?”
“Once you gauge the criticality of an incident or issue you can then gain some perspective,” she says. “That then allows for developing an action plan or response that lessens the stress and serves as a pressure release valve. Getting up from your desk and walking outside reminds you that the world is still turning, you’re still breathing, and things will be okay.”
Rodriguez adds that security practitioners also need to have the humility and vulnerability to look inward about their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing to manage stress.
“All four are connected and positively or negatively affect each other,” he adds. “Having a warrior or protector mindset in the security industry does not mean not having humility and vulnerability—you can have both if you bust the mental health stigma barrier.”
Gallup’s 2026 report includes perspectives from 263,810 people in more than 140 countries. To learn more about how this year’s report compares to past iterations, revisit our coverage on the reports from 2025, 2024, and 2023.
