Research
The expectation gap
What employees expect from work has moved since 2020. The research says where, and what a leader can do about it.
“Employees are questioning the meaning and purpose of their work, and have yet to be answered. While turnover numbers may have slowed, employee productivity concerns and future talent loss are hidden organizational risks.”
The Great Detachment
Something shifted after 2020. Employees are not quitting at pandemic-era rates, and many are not fully engaged either. Gallup calls it “The Great Detachment”: a workforce that shows up and has quietly disconnected from the mission.
That is a Face the Truth question. Hierarchy makes honest upward feedback structurally hard. The people who could say how the team is really doing often feel they cannot, however open the leader has been. That is how a hierarchy works, and a leader can build around it.
Leaders who care deeply about their teams still meet this gap. Research on psychological safety shows that honest feedback flows downhill more easily than uphill, in healthy organizations too. The question in front of a leader is whether a channel exists for an honest signal to reach the top, and who keeps it open.
51%
of employees are watching for or actively seeking a new job
The highest rate since 2014 and 2015. Many have not left, and many are open to leaving.
45%
of employees say they know what’s expected of them at work
Down from small majorities before 2021. It is the most basic question at work, and fewer than half feel clear on it.
Connection to mission hit record lows
Employees’ sense of connection to their organization’s mission dropped from 38% in March 2021 to 30% in February 2024. People want to know their work matters. It is basic to human dignity, and when that connection goes unreinforced, engagement goes with it. Source: Gallup
Why This Matters
Work is where most adults spend most of their waking hours. When people feel cut off from purpose, unclear about expectations, or invisible to leadership, the cost runs past productivity. The cost reaches their sense of meaning, their relationships, and their lives outside work.
The research points to two problems a leader can address: unclear expectations and a weak connection to purpose. Both respond to leadership attention, not through motivation speeches but through systems that make clarity automatic. Gallup’s analysis shows that improving clarity of expectations can raise work quality by 11%, and strengthening connection to mission can reduce turnover by 32%.
This is why The Shift That Sticks begins with Face the Truth: building the conditions where honest information can flow, so a leader can define what matters and build systems that reinforce it over time. The goal is not a different kind of leader. It is an organization where the people who depend on that leader can do meaningful work.
One conversation to try this week: Ask someone on the team, “What’s one thing that’s unclear about what we’re trying to accomplish right now?” Then listen without defending. The answer, or the pause before it, says how clearly the direction has landed.
More on Workforce & Engagement
How leaders build engagement that lasts.
Rob Duncan, who founded Imagine That Performance, wrote the Local Government Companion Guide to the 2025 World Happiness Report.
Move from workforce signals to a stronger organization
The expectation gap can show up in different places: in the systems that shape culture every day, in a leadership team that sends mixed signals, or in one leader’s ability to read the situation. Start where the disconnect is most visible.
When the organization needs the change to hold
Build clarity and culture into the way work gets done
Culture by Design
A tailored engagement that helps leaders detect drift, clarify the direction they intend to hold, and redesign the habits and systems that reinforce it.
When leaders are pulling in different directions
Turn a group of capable leaders into a leadership team
Leadership Team Workshop
A structured engagement that helps leaders name the patterns between them, clarify what they will protect, and build accountability that carries into daily work.
When one leader needs to see their own patterns
Strengthen the leadership capacity the moment requires
Executive Coaching
Focused one-on-one development for leaders working through engagement, communication, team development, or a persistent gap between intention and impact.
Not sure where the disconnect begins?