The data that got my attention
Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report contains a number that should alarm every executive: manager engagement fell from 27% in 2024 to just 22% in 2025. That is not a minor dip. It is the steepest one-year decline for people leaders in over a decade, and it signals that the individuals charged with driving team performance are themselves disengaging at an accelerating rate.
The same report shows that leaders now report higher daily stress than individual contributors by a margin of seven percentage points. In other words, the people who are supposed to steady the ship are experiencing more turbulence than the passengers.
Why this matters now
Managers are the single most important leverage point for organizational health. Gallup’s research consistently finds that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement across teams. When a manager burns out, the disengagement does not stay in that person’s office. It spreads.
Consider the financial stakes. Gallup estimates that low employee engagement cost the global economy $10 trillion in 2025, representing 9% of global GDP. While that figure captures all disengaged workers, the data is clear that manager burnout is the primary driver of the recent downturn. When manager engagement collapses, team engagement follows.
The timing is particularly dangerous. Organizations are navigating AI adoption, hybrid work arrangements, and flatter structures that place more emotional and operational weight on frontline leaders. The workload is up. The support is not.
What the research actually shows
The burnout picture is worse than headline engagement numbers suggest. Eagle Hill Consulting’s Workforce Burnout Survey found that 55% of U.S. employees are currently experiencing burnout, and 72% face moderate to very high stress at work. A separate Meditopia analysis from 2026 reports that 76% of employees worldwide say they experience burnout at least sometimes.
Turnover data is equally stark. Burned-out employees have turnover intentions that are roughly double those of engaged peers. Among millennials, nearly half say they have left a job specifically because they felt burned out. For all employees, that figure sits at 42%.
The cost is not abstract. WorkTime research estimates burnout costs employers between $3,999 and $20,683 per employee per year. Critically, 89% of that cost comes from presenteeism — burned-out employees showing up but producing at a fraction of their capacity — rather than from absenteeism.
| Metric | Statistic | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Manager engagement (2025) | 22% | Gallup 2026 |
| Global employee engagement | 20% | Gallup 2026 |
| U.S. employees experiencing burnout | 55% | Eagle Hill Consulting |
| Employees with moderate to very high stress | 72% | Eagle Hill Consulting |
| Employees experiencing burnout at least sometimes | 76% | Meditopia 2026 |
| Millennials who left a job due to burnout | ~48% | Meditopia / Burnout Without Borders |
| All employees who left due to burnout | 42% | Burnout Without Borders |
| Annual burnout cost per employee | $3,999 – $20,683 | WorkTime |
| Cost from presenteeism | 89% | WorkTime |
| Global cost of low engagement | $10 trillion (9% of GDP) | Gallup 2026 |
Gallup also notes that inside best-practice organizations, manager engagement reaches 79%. The gap between 22% and 79% is not a talent problem. It is a structural problem. These organizations build manager capacity through coaching, clear decision rights, and protected time for people work rather than administrative work.
A practical framework for leaders
Reversing manager burnout requires more than wellness apps and mindfulness newsletters. It requires systemic changes to how managers spend their time and how organizations measure their success. Here is a three-part framework that aligns with what the best-practice organizations in Gallup’s data actually do.
Protect manager time. Most managers spend less than 30% of their week on people development. The rest gets consumed by administrative reporting, spreadsheet updates, and back-to-back meetings that could be emails. Audit your managers’ calendars. Eliminate two recurring meetings per week. Delegate one administrative report to a coordinator. Reclaim that time for one-on-ones and team coaching.
Reduce decision bottlenecks. Burned-out managers often feel powerless because every decision requires three signatures. Push approval authority to the lowest appropriate level. If a frontline manager cannot approve a $500 expense, a schedule change, or a vendor selection without escalation, you have designed a system that creates stress without adding value.
Measure manager health directly. Most organizations survey employees but skip their managers. Add manager-specific pulse questions to your engagement survey: Do you have the resources to support your team? Do you have time for meaningful conversations? Do you feel your own well-being matters to senior leadership? Track these quarterly, not annually.
The bottom line
Manager burnout is not a personal resilience issue. It is an organizational design issue. The data from Gallup, Eagle Hill, and Meditopia all point to the same conclusion: when managers disengage, teams follow, costs rise, and top performers leave.
The organizations that will outperform in 2026 and beyond are the ones that treat manager capacity as a strategic asset rather than an inexhaustible resource. At 22% engagement, the current approach is not working. The only question is whether leadership teams will act before the next engagement survey confirms the trend.
Where to go from here
If your leadership team is seeing the warning signs of manager burnout — rising turnover, flat engagement scores, or managers who look exhausted in every meeting — an outside perspective can help you redesign the systems that are creating the pressure. Learn more about our executive coaching programs for leadership teams →
