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Who can still tell the difference between cause and effect?

These numbers shocked me! Only 9% of employees in Germany feel strongly connected to their employer and are considered “actively engaged,” according to Gallup. This is the lowest level ever recorded.

A full 78% are doing only the bare minimum—meaning they complete just enough to meet their responsibilities, but show neither extra motivation nor any emotional connection to their work.

And 13% are even “actively disengaged”—meaning they are dissatisfied and actively work against the interests of their organization.

According to Gallup, this low level of emotional engagement results in productivity losses of around 113 billion euros per year.

Just for comparison: the net profit of all DAX companies in 2024 amounted to 96 billion euros!

Yes, the numbers are alarming. But the crucial question is: what follows from this?

I can already hear many saying: all the more reason to bring everyone back from working from home into the office—following the logic, “then they won’t be able to hide anymore, and the numbers will improve.”

And others say: “As part of restructuring, we’ll get rid of those who are actively disengaged. Once the troublemakers are gone, the mood will improve.”

Yes, I also believe that there are people who have taken advantage of generous home office policies. And yes, action must be taken against long-term toxic employees as well. But that doesn’t solve the real problem behind this growing resignation in our companies. It treats the symptoms—but not the root cause.

If we truly want to change something in our organizations, we need to finally take leadership seriously. And instead of constantly controlling, we must start activating.

Because leadership does not mean constantly solving problems, finding mistakes, or eliminating inefficiencies.

Leadership above all means: seeing and understanding people. Creating meaning. Building connections. And helping them become better than they ever believed possible.

I know: that’s demanding. And yes—there’s often far too little time with everything else that’s going wrong. But that’s exactly the problem: because we constantly focus on imperfections and never have the courage to truly rethink leadership, new problems keep emerging.

And it’s the same with this survey: those who now start blaming people for working from home and being unmotivated are once again focusing only on the symptoms—and will never create a positive, motivating work environment.

This is how we keep fueling the downward spiral.

This post was published by Wolfgang Jenewein on LinkedIn on July 7, 2025. Zum Original-Beitrag