The Great Detachment means no one's being "quiet" anymore

Quiet quitting is turning into outright rebellion.

The “Great Detachment,” a term coined by Gallup, isn’t just a catchy label for disengagement—it’s a signal. Employees aren’t merely zoning out; they’re checking out of institutions that no longer serve them. Younger generations in particular, are saying, “This isn’t working for me. Why are we even doing this?”—not out of entitlement but out of exhaustion.

It’s not hard to see why: return-to-office mandates ignore the productivity gains of remote work, and are layoffs by another name. Values like mental health and sustainability are too often treated as PR instead of priorities.

When employees detach, so does productivity. Gallup estimates that this disengagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion.

For forward-thinking leaders, the Great Detachment can be an opportunity: a call to rebuild workplaces as places of purpose, connection, and trust. But it takes a shift in mindset from seeing employees as adversaries to creating a workplace built on trust.

Meeting this moment with courage and clarity means changing how we work to better reflect what we value.

Because if people are breaking up with work, maybe it’s how we’ve structured the work that needs to change.