It’s a precarious time to be a manager in today’s workforce. Nearly 200,000 employees have been laid off in just weeks—a number not seen since the 2020 recession—due to sweeping efficiency mandates from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The latest workplace trend, dubbed “What did you do last week?”, pushes productivity into short, tangible bursts, leaving little room for meaningful and substantive work. Layered atop this is an unrelenting news cycle filled with tariff wars, geopolitical instability, and economic headwinds. Unsurprisingly, Glassdoor reports the lowest employee confidence index since tracking began in 2016. Gallup data reinforces the sentiment: employee engagement is at a decade low. Experts now call it the era of Great Detachment.
Decades of research show that disengagement leads to lower quality work, reduced safety, and decreased profitability. In this climate, managers are in a double bind, between efficiency mandates and employee expectations. On the one hand, they are the foot soldiers having to implement the strident call for efficiency while being constrained by the lack of support or training. On the other hand, they must manage employee expectations that are stuck in the post-pandemic era. One of the very first executive orders terminated remote work arrangements in the federal government. Many businesses across industries including behemoths such as Amazon, JP Morgan, and AT&T followed suit with their own return to office mandates. Yet, employee preferences tell a different story. Remote work preference has jumped from 8% to 33% since 2019. Meanwhile, only 7% now prefer onsite work—down from 60%. These numbers reflect a major disconnect that managers are forced to reconcile, often without tools or autonomy.
Restoring Agency: A Roadmap for Employee Engagement
To answer the pressing questions—How do I motivate employees? How can I encourage innovation amidst uncertainty?—leaders must start by restoring a sense of agency in their teams.
Ask and Listen
Today’s workforce is teeming with diversity—not just in demographics but in terms of what employees want, need, or even expect. The psychological contract between employer and employee is more idiosyncratic than ever making a ‘one-size fit all’ management style a very bad idea. Rather than making unilateral assumptions about what will work, it is time to engage with the employee one-on-one. Having an open and honest dialogue has always been a hallmark of a good manager. For those wondering how, two promising techniques worth investing in are active listening and appreciative enquiry. Active listening calls for demonstrating empathy and genuine interest and thus creating safe space for employees to share what they need to succeed. Appreciative enquiry is about engaging in dialogues that begin with exploring what is working and then, supporting employee to build on it. Being authentic is the key.
Avoid the Busyness Trap
A week-to-week accountability model creates pressure to convey busyness and deliver quick wins. Managers need to buck the trend for efficiency demands as thus avoid the cycle of “performative productivity” for employees. Instead, empower employees to prioritize meaningful work—activities that drive long-term value even if they don’t yield immediate results. Easier said than done, yes, but prioritizing employee productivity that goes beyond the optics is a win-win as it delivers value for the organization while signaling to employee that their contribution matters.
Beyond Bosses: Becoming What Employees Need
Today’s managers are squeezed between the top-down pressures of leadership and the bottom-up expectations of their teams. And yet, their success hinges on how their employee perform. In this new era, traditional management roles no longer suffice. To help employees do well, it behooves managers to transition from being ‘Da Boss’ to becoming what employees need.
Become an Agile Coach. The AI revolution is reshaping employee skill sets needed for organizations to innovate and stay competitive. Managers should partner with employees to identify gaps and create personalized development plans. This reskilling may call for supporting employees in carving out time for self-training, for sourcing learning opportunities, or connecting them to programs from educational institutions or industry groups.
Serve as a Guide and Cheerleader. In environments where layoffs loom, many employees struggle to articulate their value. Be a spokesperson who brings employee challenges and concerns to leadership just as you can help amplify their contributions and offer visibility that go beyond short-term KPIs.
Recalibrate Expectations and Model Resilience. Sometimes, tough love is necessary. If teamwork or long-term thinking is being undervalued in today’s ‘what’s in it for me’ mindset, it’s the manager’s job to recalibrate values and re-center collaboration. Employees look to their managers for guidance when there is ambiguity and therefore, modeling behaviors your employees need to thrive may be vital. In these uncertain times, what employee may need the most is a leader who conveys resilience, strength, and positivity.
Rather than work-life balance, focus on work-life boundary.
In today’s always-on world, Employees report being perpetually in a crunch mode with long hours, unrelenting urgency and being constantly checked in. Burnout is rampant, not from lack of time off, but from the inability to truly disconnect. The busyness of work that begins as a badge of honor results significant burnout that chokes individual’s productivity. For a long time, work-life balance was viewed as a panacea. However, in today’s hyper-connected world, the idea of balance is viewed as being unrealistic and can makes things worse by setting unreasonable expectations. So, instead of work-life balance, consider the concept of work-life boundary that makes a case for clear demarcation between work and non-work lives. Boundaries can be time-bound such as the traditional 9 to 5 workday, or psychological, as in checking out mentally from the job demands to focus on personal life or even emotional, that is, a taking a break from the stresses and strain of work demands. Unfortunately, employees often lack the ability or the autonomy to engage in any of these boundary controls. Managers can help. It could mean respecting employee’s preference for personal time, empowering employees to develop a more structured work-life, or modeling behaviors that give autonomy to the employees to take a break from work. Championing and enabling work-life boundary may be key to fostering a culture of well-being where reducing anxiety, burnout, and stress is a priority.
A Gallup study of Fortune 500 CHROs revealed a critical blind spot: while most expect their employees to prefer blended work-life models, almost half of the surveyed employee actually prefer clear separation. This mismatch is a silent driver of disengagement—and a unique opportunity for managers to lead differently and win employee trust by giving them autonomy to manage their preference for work-life boundary. Admittedly not all job types allow accommodating employee desire for boundary control. For instance, a 9 to 5 work routine is not an option in healthcare setting but being open and approachable to helping employees figure out strategies for crafting their work arrangement can significantly help support hyper-stressed and over-worked employees.
Let My People Go Surfing: A Case for Employee Advocacy
Two decades ago, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard penned Let My People Go Surfing, advocating for flexible time away from work. Despite generous PTO policies, a 2024 Harris Poll found that 75% of U.S. employees don’t use their allotted time off. Why? Pressure to stay connected, fear of job insecurity, and mounting workloads.
Today, burnout is at crisis levels. While extended vacations may be impractical during economic downturns, the core idea remains relevant: managers must champion employee well-being to sustain performance.
Final Thought: Invest in Your Employees
Productivity mandates and efficiency targets may be essential—but they must not come at the cost of human creativity and resilience. Restoring employee agency is not just a feel-good strategy. It’s a competitive advantage.
Leaders who listen, advocate, coach, and set boundaries aren’t just surviving the Great Detachment—they’re building the kind of workplace where innovation and engagement thrive, even in turbulent times.