Only 37% of US employees strongly agree they are treated with respect at work. Research by Gallup states this is a record low since it began measuring ‘respect’ in 2018.
This finding comes hot on the heels of the 2024 State of the Heart survey, which identified declining emotional intelligence scores globally for the fourth consecutive year, and the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer which shows that, regardless of class, age or race, there is a dramatic increase in ‘fear of being discriminated against’. All of this combined suggests an increasing tension between how employees feel they are being treated and how managers are dealing with their employees.
Key takeaway from Gallup’s research on respect
According to Gallup’s research, employees say they don’t know what is expected of them, they don’t feel connected with their organisations’ mission and they are less likely to be satisfied with their job.
As a result their ‘life evaluations’ are at a record low and their negative emotions are elevated.
Lack of respect is counterproductive to better results. How people are treated influences performance and results far more than working location.
The Engagement G-Spot
In my HRZone 2025 HR and work trends article, I anticipated growing tension between employees and employers in the year ahead. The pressure to deliver continuous growth with fewer resources and less investment comes at a cost. And that cost is employee wellbeing.
It doesn’t matter how many ‘resilience’ workshops you run. If you treat your people like machines year after year with only the vaguest attempts to ‘tune the engine’, eventually people will stop believing in you.
In my latest book “Punks in Suits – How to Lead the Workplace Reformation” I call this the Engagement G-Spot – a belief that there is a way to fast-track employee engagement without really engaging with employees. It’s a trick you play on your people to have them believe you care about them but only because you want them to do as you say, and then tell you they love the challenge.
Employees are exhausted. Not only are they tired of the relentlessness of the work. They are also tired of the half-hearted attempts to engage them and the empty talk of organisational values. They are also fed up with the random ‘three-days in the office’ mandates accompanied by reassurances about empowerment and encouragement to share radical and risky ideas (but only if they are guaranteed to work).
But why should you care about ‘respect’?
Low respect is a sign of unethical behaviour
For one reason, a low feeling of ‘respect’ in your organisation might be evidence that you are doing something very wrong as a business. This is worth investigating. Is discrimination present? Are people expected to behave in unethical ways where the ‘ends’ are expected to justify the ‘means’? This is HR’s business.
HR upholds the ethos of the organisation. While this should be everyone’s concern, it isn’t written into the job description like it is with HR. Your job is to ensure that your company’s culture does no harm to the human resources in your business and, even better, is actually a healthy place for those people to contribute.
Lack of respect is an indicator of discrimination or harassment in your organisation. You cannot ignore it.
Obsession with work location could be killing respect levels
Lack of respect is counterproductive to better results. How people are treated influences performance and results far more than working location.
Companies obsess about their hybrid policy, but there is much more to gain by considering how people are treated. Of course, it’s much easier to blame location, haul everyone into the office and monitor presenteeism than it is to reflect the behaviour of your managers.
But HR cannot be duped into accepting that poor quality management skills are a fact of life. If your company is obsessed with location, it’s a surefire indicator that you have a lack of management skill in the organisation. Address the root cause rather than blaming junior staff for feeling disrespected.
Gallup’s research on respect should make you go back to the drawing board.
Take note: Respect is personal
Gallup divides people into two broad categories:
Blenders: who don’t mind when work-life and home-life overlap. They will do ‘life admin’ during the working day, but are also willing to do ‘work admin’ outside of official working hours.
Splitters: Who prefer a clear distinction between their work and their lives outside.
While the reality is more complex, of course, the message is clear – you can’t treat everyone the same. Enlightened leadership is about embracing diversity and difference. It is about adapting to the human needs of your people. They are not machines. They are not predictable and ‘programmable’.
Real respect comes from embracing rather than tolerating, and even minimising, their humanity. Remember that the word ‘Human’ makes up half of your job title. If the work environment is not conducive to being ‘Human’, then what are you there for?
You cannot repeat last year’s people strategy and expect respect to grow
Gallup’s research on respect should make you go back to the drawing board. If your leadership development programme and your organisational culture initiatives and your contribution in SLT meetings is the same this year as last year, and the year before, and the year before that, you have to admit something has to change.
If levels of trust, respect, engagement and emotional health keep declining there’s no point attempting the same solutions.
