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Productivity Is Quietly Dropping Across The Workforce This Forbes

Leo Migdal
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productivity is quietly dropping across the workforce this forbes

Gone are the days when people worked until they couldn’t. While many business principles stay the same, the composition and mindset of the workforce are evolving rapidly—and so are the productivity risks. A quiet exit is happening across workplaces. According to a recent Gallup report, employees have been steadily working fewer hours over the past five years—dropping from an average of 44.1 hours in 2019 to 42.9 in 2024. There’s a generational divide: workers under 35 have reduced their hours by nearly two, while 35-and-over workers have cut just under one. That equates to a full workweek lost per year for 35-and-over employees and two for employees under 35.

On the surface, the difference may appear small. But across an organization, this shift—if left unaddressed—can compound into significant productivity and engagement issues. This productivity dip isn’t just about time on the clock—it’s part of a broader transformation in workforce values and well-being. At the heart of the issue is burnout, which is costing companies millions annually. But it's not just physical exhaustion—it's often mental, emotional, and spiritual depletion that eventually manifests itself in physical decline. Employee engagement is also dropping.

In 2024, engagement levels dropped to their lowest point in a decade, with only 31% of workers actively engaged, according to another Gallup report. Workers under 35—again, the same group working fewer hours and experiencing deeper productivity losses, were the most affected. As values and priorities shift, younger generations want more meaning, alignment, and employer support. Salary matters, but it's not enough. Without a sense of purpose and connection, disengagement sets in. As the mental and emotional toll of work increases across all levels, including the C-suite, leaders must rethink how they define and implement wellness.

Focusing on physical health isn't sufficient. What's needed now is a plan that genuinely encompasses mental and emotional well-being. It's about building a culture to support optimal energy management, psychological safety, and sustainable performance. Ori is CRO at Teramind, helping enterprises scale securely through AI, data-driven GTM strategies and operational excellence. The numbers on your dashboard look perfect. You hit your revenue targets.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are in the green. Employee productivity metrics are trending upward. But what if I told you that behind these reassuring metrics lies one of the most expensive deceptions of our time? Much of the workforce is at breaking point, and in 2024, it cost the global economy $438 billion in lost productivity. Yet most executives have no idea it's happening because it is invisible to traditional business metrics. Welcome to the era of "quiet cracking," the phenomenon where employees appear productive while mentally and emotionally deteriorating beneath the surface.

Unlike quiet quitting, which was easier to recognize, quiet cracking is insidious. As someone who has spent over a decade working with enterprise data platforms, I've seen countless organizations celebrate productivity metrics while missing critical warning signs in their workforce. The reality is that even the most comprehensive data reveals only surface-level behaviors—it can't capture the emotional and psychological deterioration happening beneath those seemingly positive productivity numbers. Here's what's probably happening in your organization right now: Your system shows Sarah just had her most productive week ever. She answered 200-plus emails, attended 15 meetings and completed every task on time. Your metrics show peak performance.

Heidi Farris is the CEO of ActivTrak, focused on helping organizations use data to understand and optimize the way teams work. Definitions of productivity vary widely across roles and organizations, a reality amplified by hybrid work, decentralized teams and the rapid adoption of AI. Some executives focus on outputs, others on hours worked, but broad metrics like these rarely capture the true drivers of performance such as focus, engagement and time spent on high-value tasks. Traditional measures like revenue per employee or voluntary turnover rates highlight big-picture trends; yet, these lagging indicators often mask the inefficiencies that most impact workforce productivity. ActivTrak’s latest Workforce Utilization Benchmarks Report shows just how costly those blind spots can be. The benchmark study analyzed anonymized digital activity from more than 304,000 employees across 5,600+ organizations in 23 industries.

On average, companies achieve only 87% of expected productivity while paying 100% of salary costs. Nearly 60% of employees fall short of daily productivity goals, costing companies $11.2 million (based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2024 data released April 2, 2025) annually per 1,000 employees—the equivalent of losing 130 full-time workers every year. These aren’t edge cases or anomalies. This is systemic underutilization—a quiet drain on workforce ROI that can go unnoticed for months, even years. Jaclyn Wainwright is the cofounder and CEO of Humankind.

We’re facing a quiet crisis in today’s workforce, and effectively addressing it could unlock your business’s performance. It’s not a shortage of talent or engagement or even burnout (though all three are symptoms). The real issue is that millions of people are coming to work in survival mode. They’re navigating financial stress, mental and emotional exhaustion and food and housing insecurity while still trying to meet the expectations of a full-time job—oftentimes without a network to turn to for support. And we’re measuring the wrong things in response. For decades, we’ve tried to assess workforce performance through absenteeism data, benefits utilization or engagement surveys.

But these are downstream indicators. If we want to understand what’s really driving turnover, productivity and growth, we need to get upstream. We need to start measuring and improving employee quality of life. At Humankind, we support more than 2.5 million employees across large employer groups, helping to address root cause issues that drive overall well-being. We use the World Health Organization’s Quality of Life (WHOQOL) survey to understand how individuals perceive their well-being across four domains: physical health, psychological health, environment and relationships. This isn’t a satisfaction survey or measure of engagement or utilization; it’s a validated, globally recognized tool that measures whether people feel well and capable in the context of their actual lives.

The link between workplace data and behaviour patterns is fascinating and our understanding of productivity is evolving beyond simple metrics. The focus on environment, well-being and leadership - not just hours worked - perfectly matches what behavioural science tells us about engagement and performance. For anyone in my network who is an HR, People Ops, People Analytics leader or operator. 👇 Thoughtfully written and balanced by Forbes about Why productivity is quietly dropping. "Productivity Isn’t Just About The Hours Worked - Disengagement and burnout aren’t primarily a function of hours worked and workload. They’re deeply influenced by the environments created and how people are led." We're increasingly working with HR leadership and People Analytics teams to help them combine data from workplace and AI tools e.g.

MS 365, Workspace & Gemini, Slack, with 'lagging' business performance data like attrition rates, and engagement data. Temporall helps transform fragmented workplace data into strategic insights, enabling HR to proactively identify where digital friction and workload issues exist so they can intervene. It's the intersection of End User Computing and HR, some companies call this Digital Employee Experience (DEX) teams, we're seeing tremendous pull from these teams to partner with them. Do get in touch for a conversation, we'd love to connect. #humancentered #dataintelligence Temporall https://lnkd.in/eaa8U27G 🌐 Recent HR Trends Shaping the Future of Work 🌐 The HR landscape is evolving rapidly, influenced by technology, workforce expectations, and global market dynamics.

To stay ahead, organizations must adapt to these emerging trends: ✅ Hybrid & Remote Work Models – Building flexible workplaces while ensuring productivity and engagement. ✅ Employee Well-being & Mental Health – Prioritizing holistic wellness as a core element of organizational culture. ✅ Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) – Creating inclusive environments that foster innovation and belonging. ✅ AI & Data-Driven HR – Leveraging analytics and automation for talent acquisition, retention, and workforce planning. ✅ Upskilling & Reskilling – Preparing employees for future roles through continuous learning initiatives. ✅ Employee Experience (EX) – Enhancing engagement and retention by focusing on personalized journeys.

📌 These trends highlight how HR is moving beyond traditional functions to become a strategic partner in business growth. 👉 Which of these trends do you see making the most impact in the coming years? #HRTrends #FutureOfWork #EmployeeExperience #PeopleManagement #Leadership #HumanResources Prof. Rajashri Gethe Creating a "liquid workforce" that combines full-time employees with freelancers and gig workers can give your teams greater autonomy and flexibility. Your team gets a chance to collaborate and build meaningful connections to work more efficiently.

Ryan Starks notes leaders must be intentional when using this model. "Without intentional effort, the sense of connection and alignment on how to work together can erode, undermining team performance, ultimately impacting the organization's business outcomes." https://lnkd.in/gQUKYVMN Too often, workplace conversations focus only on office employees. But the frontline workforce powers essential industries, and they deserve the same opportunities to thrive. When organizations invest in: ✅ Growth and development through clear career pathways ✅ Recognition that makes employees feel valued ✅ Flexibility that gives workers more control over their schedules They don’t just reduce turnover;... https://ukg.inc/4nUjip2 #FrontlineWorkers #EmployeeExperience

Workers are down in the dumps about a lack of career growth opportunities and emptying offices as companies slash staffers to make way for AI, all while being put under constant pressure to do... Scared of speaking out and putting their neck on the line in a dire job climate, staff are silently but massively disengaging with their employers: Welcome to “quiet cracking.” The latest workplace phenomenon sees staff showing up and doing their job but mentally and emotionally struggling. About 54% of employees report feeling unhappy at work, with the frequency ranging from occasionally to constantly, according to a 2025 report from TalentLMS. “The telltale signs of quiet cracking are very similar to burnout. You may notice yourself lacking motivation and enthusiasm for your work, and you may be feeling useless, or even angry and irritable,” Martin Poduška, editor in chief and career writer for Kickresume, tells Fortune.

“These are all common indicators of quiet cracking, and they gradually get worse over time.” Unlike “quiet quitting,” this decline in productivity from workers isn’t intentional. Instead, it’s caused by feeling worn down and unappreciated by their employers. And oftentimes, as with burnout, they don’t even register it creeping up on them until it’s too late. But feeling unable to quit in protest because of the current job market, it’s left them ultimately stuck and unhappy in their roles. Graduate from the "old school." Too many companies hold on to antiquated concepts of work, productivity, and management theories that limit their possibilities and result in unnecessary loss.

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