Daily stress
38%
of German employees experienced stress a lot of the previous day.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 — Germany.
— The stakes in Germany
People don't just burn out. They leave.
Unresolved stress and disengagement don't stay quiet. They surface as sick days, resignations, and quiet quitting — and every departure is a capability the organisation has to rebuild from scratch.
Disengagement
89%
of German employees are not engaged at work — only 11% are engaged, and 15% are actively disengaged.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 — Germany.
The price of a replacement
50–200%
of an employee's annual salary to replace them — hiring, ramp-up, and lost institutional knowledge.
SHRM turnover cost research.
Workforce churn
~33%
annual workforce fluctuation in Germany — one in three roles turns over each year.
IW Köln, Arbeitskräftefluktuation 2023.
Actively job hunting
39%
of German employees say they are actively looking to leave their current employer.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2025.
Manager effect
70%
of the variance in team engagement is attributable to the manager alone — nothing else comes close.
Gallup meta-analysis of manager impact.
Burnout bill
€9 bn
lost each year in Germany to burnout-related productivity decline.
Gallup, The High Cost of Worker Burnout in Germany.
Thriving in life
48%
of German employees rate their lives well enough to be classified as “thriving” — the other half are struggling or suffering.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 — Germany.
Wellbeing dividend
41%
lower health-related costs among employees thriving in wellbeing vs. those who are struggling.
Gallup–Healthways wellbeing & healthcare cost research.
— The picture globally
The same pattern, at a planetary scale.
Germany isn't an outlier. Around the world, disengagement and poor mental health are quietly draining trillions from the global economy. Every one of those numbers is a person whose day at work is grinding them down.
Global engagement
20%
of employees worldwide are engaged at work. The other 80% are coasting or actively unhappy.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026.
The trillion-dollar drag
$8.9 T
lost to low engagement each year — roughly 9% of global GDP.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2024.
Global stress
40%
of the world's employees experienced stress a lot of the previous day — a near-record high.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026.
Working days lost
12 bn
working days lost every year to depression and anxiety alone.
WHO, Mental Health at Work fact sheet.
Cost to the economy
$1 T
a year — the global productivity cost of depression and anxiety at work.
WHO / World Bank, Mental Health at Work fact sheet.
Return on investment
4×
return for every $1 invested in scaling up treatment for depression and anxiety.
WHO-led study, Lancet Psychiatry.
UK employer cost
£51 bn
the annual cost of poor employee mental health to UK employers — up from £45 bn in 2019.
Deloitte, Mental Health and Employers 2024.
Engagement pays back
23%
higher profitability in the most engaged business units vs. the least engaged — plus 18% higher productivity and 43% lower turnover.
Gallup Q12 meta-analysis.
Mental health at work
15%
of working-age adults live with a mental disorder — most without adequate support at work.
WHO, Mental Health at Work fact sheet.
Download the one-pager with every international statistic and its original source.
Download one-pager (PDF)Retention isn't a recruitment problem. It's a wellbeing problem showing up on the exit interview.
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