Federal job cuts are dominating the news, raising concerns about how these changes will affect employment in the private sector. Many long-term federal workers, who once relied on job security, now face an uncertain future, prompting questions about whether the resulting job market shift will ease hiring challenges for other companies.
The Great Resignation Becomes The Great Detachment in 2025
A recent study by The Conference Board revealed that workers who changed jobs since the pandemic are significantly less satisfied with their new positions compared to those who stayed, with overall job satisfaction dropping by 5.6 percentage points among job switchers.[i] This signals a shift from the Great Resignation era into what Gallup is calling the “Great Detachment.”[ii]
Why Did Employees Leave and Why Do They Regret It?
The primary reasons employees left their jobs were higher pay and better working conditions. However, a 2024 Gallup report states that U.S. employee engagement reached an 11-year low, indicating that many workers feel disconnected even in their new roles.[iii]
What do they miss the most? Their co-workers. Similar to past reports, employees who left their jobs cite missing workplace relationships as the biggest regret. This aligns with an 85-year Harvard study that found jobs lacking human interaction and meaningful relationships lead to the unhappiest employees.[iv]
Unpacking the “Better Working Conditions” Explanation
Each year at the SHRM annual conference, industry professionals are polled about the effectiveness of exit surveys:
- Nearly everyone confirms their company conducts exit surveys.
- Fewer than 5% say they’ve made their company better by using exit survey data.
- When asked why, many respond in unison: “Because employees don’t tell the truth.”
Self-reported data from exiting employees is inherently unreliable. When an employee leaves and states “better working conditions” as their reason, this can be a generic response that means anything from a toxic work culture to a desire for remote work.
The Real Value of a Pay Raise
Another top reason employees cite for leaving is “more pay.” However, the actual financial impact of a standard $5,000 raise is often underwhelming:
- An estimated 25% goes to federal taxes.
- Another estimated 10% goes to state and local taxes.
- Most companies process payroll 26 times a year.
This means a $5,000 raise equates to roughly $125 per paycheck—hardly a game-changer. This raises the question: Was the raise truly about financial gain, or was it about feeling valued and recognized?
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Further Reading: Pay or Disrespect – What Drives High Performer Turnover?
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The Root Cause of Employee Turnover: Poor Leadership
Despite employees citing pay and working conditions as primary factors for leaving, Gallup research consistently finds that 50% of employees who quit do so because of their manager.[v] Yet, in most exit interviews and job-change regret studies, dissatisfaction with management is rarely mentioned explicitly.
If employees regret leaving primarily because they miss their co-workers, but not necessarily their supervisors, this reinforces what workplace research has long suggested: People don’t leave jobs—they leave managers.
Emerging Trends in 2025: The “Great Detachment” and AI’s Role in Workplace Satisfaction
In 2025, a growing workplace trend is the “Great Detachment,” where employees disengage from their work without actively quitting.[vi] Organizations are also facing a paradigm shift with AI integration. AI is streamlining repetitive tasks, potentially improving job satisfaction by allowing employees to focus on meaningful work. However, it also creates anxiety over job security and the need for continuous upskilling.[vii]
At the same time, employees are countering workplace dissatisfaction with “quiet thriving”—a trend in which they take personal initiative to improve their work experience rather than quitting.[viii]
The Q5 Tell Us Why Stay Interviews Work to Combat Quitting
Our company consistently helps client companies cut turnover by 20% and more, and our solution details how it would have greatly reduced the number of employees who left. That solution includes costing turnover, establishing retention goals, training first-line managers to conduct Stay Interviews and forecast how long each employee will stay…and then holding them accountable for retention outcomes. The hidden solution, though, is the scripting and training related to the five specific Stay Interview questions:
- When you travel to work each day, what things do you look forward to? To begin with a positive question that brings the employee’s thinking into the present hour here and now.
- What are you learning here? Helping employees learn is an easy gift to give, whereas career talk should be reserved for those employees who might actually have a career with your company.
- Why do you stay here? My favorite, in part because many employees don’t immediately know the answer and therefore must discover it and announce it to themselves. And knowing this answer along with the answer to Q1 tells us how to make employees happy.
- When was the last time you thought about leaving our team? And what prompted it? “When” signifies that everyone thinks about leaving so it’s OK to say you think about it, too. And responding to Q3 above means you have now presented a balanced position of why you stay and could leave.
- What can I do as your manager to make working here better for you? We close by addressing the relationship between us.
By applying skills like listening, probing, and taking notes, about 90% of employees tell the truth. And when managers acknowledge, respond, and even make a few changes to day-to-day work, magic happens and employees stay longer.
Would Stay Interviews have reduced the millions of employees who left and later regretted doing so? I believe the answer is, “yes.”
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Further Reading: Why These 5 Stay Interview Questions Are All You Need
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What This Means for Companies
As organizations navigate workplace trends in 2025, the key takeaway is clear: Retaining employees isn’t just about offering better pay or working conditions. Employees need strong relationships, recognition, and competent leadership to remain engaged. If companies focus on fostering these elements, they may prevent future waves of regretful job changers.
Employee Retention for Organizational Success
Now is the time to plan how you will retain your best workers now to mitigate the numbers you will need to hire in the future. If you know you need to address turnover or improve engagement but aren’t sure where to start, email me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com and I promise to help you jump start your employee retention strategy now, so you can see results this year.
[i] https://www.conference-board.org/press/job-satisfaction-2024
[ii] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/653711/great-detachment-why-employees-feel-stuck.aspx
[iii] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/654329/workplace-challenges-2025.aspx
[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_wellness
[v] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/653711/great-detachment-why-employees-feel-stuck.aspx
[vi] https://nypost.com/2024/08/16/lifestyle/jaded-gen-zers-are-unhappy-at-work-the-great-detachment-has-taken-over/
[vii] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/654329/workplace-challenges-2025.aspx
[viii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_thriving
The Great Resignation becomes The Great Detachment in 2025
The evolving workplace trends of 2025 includes shifting from the Great Resignation to the emerging Great Detachment—a period of increasing employee disengagement. Recent studies from Gallup, The Conference Board, and Harvard research, help us uncover the real reasons employees leave and what organizations can do to foster engagement and retention.
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