{"slug": "senior-leaders-youve-lost-the-confidence-of-your-employees-here-are-several-why", "title": "Senior leaders: You’ve lost the confidence of your employees. Here are several reasons why", "summary": "Glassdoor research shows employee confidence in senior leadership has hit its lowest point since 2017, with ratings falling below 3.5. Key drivers include rising layoff anxiety, return-to-office mandates, and rapid AI adoption, as mentions of AI in reviews tripled and terms like 'misalignment' and 'distrust' surged.", "body_md": "In a year of a [hiring](https://www.fastcompany.com/section/hiring) recession and increasing anxiety about [AI](https://www.fastcompany.com/section/artificial-intelligence) and return-to-office policies, employees are feeling less confidence in their employers than ever.\n\nGlassdoor, the online review platform for employees, recently revisited some workplace and job market trends it had predicted at the end of 2025. This week, its research team [published a mid-year report](https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/worklife-trends-2026-midyear-check-in/) that showed a significant disconnect between employees and senior leadership. Here are the key findings:\n\nEmployees showed low satisfaction rates between 2024 and 2025, and those rates have only plummeted further, according to Glassdoor Economic Research.\n\nAverage senior leadership ratings in Glassdoor reviews fell below 3.5, the lowest since 2017.\n\nIn reviews that mentioned leadership, year-over-year change in keyword prevalence included “misalignment” with a 95% increase, “disconnect” with a 52% increase, “distrust” with a 18% increase, “hypocrisy” with a 4% increase, and “miscommunication” with a 9% decrease.\n\nAs part of its research, Glassdoor analyzed [WARN Act notices](https://www.fastcompany.com/90806623/warn-act-law-twitter-explainer)—which are required by U.S. law and mandate that employers inform employees, local governments, and state agencies 60 days before a mass layoff or closing.\n\nThese notices showed that small layoffs made up 50% of fillings in 2026, slightly lower than in 2023 to 2025, but higher than prior years.\n\nGlassdoor’s report shows that layoffs loom large in employees’ minds, and [anxiety about layoffs](https://www.fastcompany.com/91469475/the-psychology-of-the-chicken-little-coworker) and job security is skyrocketing. In 2026, mentions of insecurity increased 63%, while explicit mentions of layoffs increased 29%.\n\nEven employees who have survived layoffs are still left with anxiety. Layoffs are shown to have a persistent negative effect on workplace culture, lasting multiple years.\n\nDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people primarily working remotely tripled, according to the [U.S. Census.](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/people-working-from-home.html)\n\nWhile a plethora of employees have since returned to the office, remote or hybrid working has become more normalized. However, companies have more recently been mandating strict return-to-office policies.\n\nThis left employees with a difficult decision, according to Glassdoor. Either maintain remote and hybrid flexibility, or pursue faster career growth and return to the office.\n\nThe reports show that work-from-home rates have declined slowly, as employers put pressure on employees to return and limit remote options.\n\nThe percentage of full-time work days spent working from home decreased from 27.2% in 2025 to 25.7% in 2026, while employees with fully remote jobs decreased from 12.5% in 2025 to 11.1% in 2026.\n\nHybrid work numbers were more stable, practically unchanged from 27.1% in 2025 to 26.8% in 2026.\n\nEmployee satisfaction among remote workers and hybrid workers have also been declining. Remote workers report lower worklife balance ratings than hybrid workers.\n\nFrom 2022 to 2025, employee satisfaction in occupations highly exposed to AI declined only slightly. While Glassdoor predicted this number would continue falling, the decrease has been more rapid than anticipated.\n\nAI is swiftly impacting the workplace, with broad concerns about the technology not being limited to employees in jobs at risk of direct replacement.\n\nGlassdoor reviews that mention AI-related keywords have more than tripled 240%, with AI being mentioned more than other pressing issues, such as inflation.\n\nEmployees are concerned by leaders demanding the use of AI, while also [using AI as an excuse](https://www.fastcompany.com/91560409/ceos-blame-ai-for-layoffs-workers-disagree) for layoffs.\n\nIn 2025, discussions on AI were more optimistic: 55% positive as compared to 41% negative. However, in 2026, sentiment was 53% negative and 43% positive.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/senior-leaders-youve-lost-the-confidence-of-your-employees-here-are-several-why", "canonical_source": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91564358/senior-leaders-youve-lost-the-confidence-of-your-employees-here-are-several-reasons-why", "published_at": "2026-06-25 13:05:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-25 13:49:00.889202+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Glassdoor", "U.S. Census"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/senior-leaders-youve-lost-the-confidence-of-your-employees-here-are-several-why", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/senior-leaders-youve-lost-the-confidence-of-your-employees-here-are-several-why.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/senior-leaders-youve-lost-the-confidence-of-your-employees-here-are-several-why.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/senior-leaders-youve-lost-the-confidence-of-your-employees-here-are-several-why.jsonld"}}