There’s a new workforce crisis and it isn’t burnout

The sharp drop in employee engagement isn’t just exhaustion. It’s about workers losing the connection with their identities.

[Source Illustration: Getty Images]

Something strange is happening in offices and on video calls right now. By almost every visible measure, people are still showing up and doing their work. They are nodding along in meetings and occasionally unmuting to say it sounds great. And underneath all that motion, a growing number of them have quietly left the office.

The numbers are stark enough to stop you. In DHR Global’s 2026 Workforce Trends Report, a survey of 1,500 knowledge workers across North America, Europe, and Asia, the share of employees describing........

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