ADP finds employees are 'rattled,' overwhelmed and ready to quit

More workers are feeling "rattled" — potentially just one setback away from seeking a new job or one positive development from staying on board, according to a newly released global survey of 38,000 workers.

ADP classified workers into three categories: Thriving, overwhelmed or rattled. While thriving workers tend to experience pressure at work as positive stress, even enjoying last-minute "fire-drill deadlines," overwhelmed workers are more likely to experience work pressure as negative stress. Rattled workers fall somewhere in the middle. 

The survey classified 58% of the respondents as rattled in 2024, up from 54% in 2023. Meanwhile, the portion of thriving workers dropped two percentage points to 27% and "overwhelmed" respondents — those with the lowest worker well-being scores — dropped one percentage point to 16%.

"There are different ways that people deal with stress, and it's unique," says Mary Hayes, research director for people and performance at ADP. "Those in the rattled category just haven't found the joy of a fire drill or the hatred of a fire drill; they're kind of like, 'Eh, I'll do it. Let's move on; I'll get it done.' But it's not energizing for them."

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The portion of rattled workers increased despite a steep decline in workers reporting daily negative stress on the job, to 7.5% in 2024 from 15% in 2023. Typically, lower levels of negative stress at work would lead to more thriving workers. But ADP's research shows that about half of the workers in the rattled category — 51% — are considering or are in the process of leaving their jobs, Hayes says. 

It's difficult to predict why people stay in the rattled category, but it could be they've just accepted that "their job is a job" and it pays their bills for the moment, she says. "Some individuals just accept work is miserable or is not going to be a happy place for them, but they need the job."

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Employers can pull their rattled workers into the thriving category by boosting their levels of engagement, Hayes says. Engaged workers do their best work, are likely to sustain their high levels of productivity and typically remain loyal to their employer.

To foster a highly engaged workforce, employers need to offer their workers freedom to choose how work is done, flexibility to choose where they work and to set their own schedule, and autonomy to make decisions instead of being told what to do, Hayes says. Companies should give their leaders leeway in deciding how best to balance freedom, flexibility and autonomy for their employees.

"Help leaders do what they're paid to do," she says: Top-down directives that diminish the authority of team leaders over the three factors can hurt productivity and lead to more turnover. 

"Leaders need to know the people who are on their team; be able to focus them when they need to be focused and engage them in work that they're able to find strength and love in," Hayes says.

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Another key to improving worker engagement is team building, even with remote and hybrid workers, Hayes says. When an employee feels that they are working on the best team they've ever been a part of, she says, "that's where the magic happens; where engagement is through the roof; there's lower intent to leave; there's higher productivity."

Fewer than one in five survey respondents reported they were working on their best team ever, so employers have their work cut out for them on this metric, Hayes says.

"Building teams within organizations is probably one of the most important parts of the job that a leader and senior leaders can do," she says. "A worker wants to feel connected to the people they work with because you spend eight hours a day or more with them, which is sometimes more than you spend with your own family. How do we as employers make a social contract of: 'I will give my all if you take care of me?'"