Compounding changes at work over the years hurting employer-employee relationships
Employers are entering the new year with a sceptical workforce as major changes at work hit employer-employee relationships hard, according to a new report.
Data from Glassdoor's latest Worklife Trends report revealed that employees are losing faith in their leaders, indicated strongly by declining ratings on senior leadership.
"Glassdoor reviews of senior management indicate that employees have been losing faith in their leadership since the latter half of 2023. Ratings peaked as leaders navigated the pandemic, and returned to roughly pre-pandemic levels in 2022," the report read.
"Ratings started to decline in 2023, however, as workers became more critical of their leadership, reaching a low point in early 2024 and only slightly rebounding in 2025."
Dissatisfaction in business leaders is also reflected in how employees talk about their bosses in Glassdoor reviews.
The use of the word "misaligned" was up by 149% from 2024 to 2025 in Glassdoor reviews that mention senior leadership and management, according to the findings. Other descriptive words for bosses that saw an increase include:
- Distrust (+26%)
- Miscommunication (+25%)
- Disconnection (+24%)
- Hypocrisy (+18%)
'Forever layoffs' hurt work connections
The report attributed the disconnect between employers and employees to various factors, such as the rise in smaller but frequent layoffs and the reported prioritisation for in-person workers for career growth.
The smaller but frequent layoffs, which the report described as the "forever layoffs," come as employers move away from infrequent but large cuts.
Citing the US WARN Act data, Glassdoor found that layoffs impacting fewer than 50 workers make up 51% of notices received by both state and local representatives. This is a significant increase from the 38% recorded a decade ago.
"Even this likely understates the rise in mini-layoffs, as the federal WARN Act doesn't require filings for small layoffs of less than 50 people and only a handful of states have more stringent reporting thresholds," the report read.
It attributed the phenomenon to employers wanting to trim their payrolls without drawing headlines or backlash.
"While serial layoffs may fly under the radar, they don't fool the employees who take on more work afterwards and wonder if they might be next," it said. "The persistent drag from forever layoffs are likely to damage worker morale and workplace culture in 2026 and beyond."
Remote workers' job satisfaction
Meanwhile, the report also noted that the growing biases to in-person employees for career growth are pulling down the job satisfaction of remote and hybrid workers.
"As employers implicitly or even explicitly prioritise in-person workers for promotions and career opportunities, remote and hybrid workers are being left behind," the report read. "Over the last few years, that has manifested as declining job satisfaction from remote and hybrid workers."
This will likely result in more employees feeling more pressure to make trade-offs between flexibility and career advancement next year.
"RTO will continue in slow-motion as workers who prioritise career advancement will trickle back into the office in response to the forced choice between working from home, or getting the recognition they deserve," it said.
The report warned that these strategic moves from leaders amid quickly changing market conditions will leave workers suffering from burnout and job insecurity.
"Workers enter the new year highly sceptical of what their leaders say and the decisions they make," the report read. "Workers are questioning how leadership will represent the workers' interests amid all those changes."
