Only 34% of the world The workers describe themselves. as “prosperous” according to a new report from the workplace analysis company Gallup—one percentage point less than the previous year. But the share of employees under 35 who say they are thriving dropped to 31% in 2023, down from 35% a year earlier. That means that young employees have the lowest percentage of flourishing workers and have also experienced the greatest drop in morality. About 20% of global staff surveyed also said that felt lonelycompared to 22% of employees under 35, according to the report.
Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist for work and well-being, says Fortune young workers mental health decline arises from the psychological impacts of various economical crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdowns in 2020 also caused Social isolation during the formative years of their lives, and obsessive technology habits can push people further into chronic loneliness.
“I think the distance between people is greater than ever,” Harter says. “When people become more physically distant, you become more mentally distant. “That’s what happened to younger workers.”
But managers often the brand failed when it comes to leading their younger employees, or have they been labeled as difficult to work with. But if the bosses I don’t understand Gen Z workers and millennials, or take the time to learn how they workwork cultures will inevitably corrode and worsen the mental health of young employees.
“They come to work wanting to build an identity, be inspired and make a difference. And they have a terrible boss who just criticizes them all the time, or worse, ignores them,” she says. “That leads to the condition we call ‘actively disengaged.’ “Those people have the worst well-being, as we have seen that people who are not actively engaged are more likely to have new incidents of depression.”
If left untreated, employee mental health issues can boil over and become major problems in the workplace. they have kept millions of people outside of the workforce, led to higher turnover ratesand contributed to general exhaustion.
Harter says the best way to foster positive well-being among young workers is to ensure that managers are good leaders: bosses who have one on one with staffprovide meaningful feedback, listen to their contributionsand create collaborative ways to involve your teams.
“Part of getting a good job is reducing misery. Get rid of the terrible managers and make sure you increase the number of great managers over time, so people are eager to be there,” he says. “Feeling that someone cares about me at work, that I can do what I do best, can reduce loneliness. Therefore, they should pay attention to practices that not only inspire people, but also generate high productivity, higher retention rates and results for clients.”
