It’s official: unhappiness at work has hit record levels. New research shows that only 51% of employees regularly feel happy at work. Happiness is not just some nice-to-have metric in the workplace. Employee happiness is directly linked to business outcomes, with the same research demonstrating that those who identify as happy also report higher levels of trust, connection and engagement.

And workers are definitely feeling disengaged right now. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 report found that employee engagement has stagnated at a miserable 10% in the UK, while measures of overall employee wellbeing have also declined since 2024. So what are the reasons for this workplace unhappiness? Research shows that a key issue lies in how employees are managed.

Managers as the agents of wellbeing

Many managers probably don’t understand the vital role they play in their staff’s happiness and well-being. In a survey of 3,400 employees, it was found that managers had the same impact on their mental health as their partner, doctor or therapist, while the Gallup report found that those in companies with bad management practices are nearly 60% more likely to be stressed compared with staff in companies with good management practices.

Bad management has a ripple effect. Staff become unhappy, lose motivation, and become disengaged, and, in turn, productivity levels fall. In fact, research from The London School of Economics established that at least a third of the variance in productivity between countries and companies is due to poor management.

On the flip side, good management creates a wealth of benefits. Once an employee is empowered by their manager to know and use their strengths daily, they’re nearly six times more engaged. If a company has highly engaged staff, they report 78% less absenteeism and significantly lower turnover rates. When employees feel that managers care about their well-being, they’re 73% less likely to feel burned out and 53% less likely to be actively seeking a new job. All this leads to greater productivity.

This means that the traditional ‘command-and-control’ approach to management, where managers solve staff problems by telling them what to do, simply has no place in the modern workplace. A new approach is needed that nurtures employee happiness and well-being.

Asking purposeful questions

An approach that has proven to work is an enquiry-led one, where managers develop the mindset to be looking for opportunities to ask their team members more purposeful questions and to actively listen to what their team is saying. This is the critical component of a new style of management called Operational Coaching, where managers have daily ‘in-the-moment’ coaching conversations with their employees. Operational Coaching is built around the simple but effective STAR model:

●      STOP: When an employee comes to a manager with a problem, the manager must learn to stop, take a step back, and overcome their natural inclination to step in and solve the problem for them.

●      THINK: This gives the manager the space to think about whether the situation an employee has presented offers a coachable moment.

●      ASK: The manager masters the art of asking powerful, thought-provoking questions and then actively listens to employees. This allows them to ditch the ‘fix and solve’ response and instead presents the employee with a learning opportunity using their own problem-solving skills.

●      RESULT: The manager works with the employee to secure a commitment to take action to begin to resolve the issue. The manager may need to ask a few more questions to agree on the appropriate follow-up, increasing the likelihood that action will be taken and providing a future opportunity to give appropriate appreciative feedback. This isn’t a purely academic idea. Shifting to this style of management has been proven to generate hugely positive outcomes for employees, managers and organisations, such as increased productivity and lower staff turnover.

Leadership development in action

The Co-op’s East of England branch is a great example of a company that looked to its managers to lead the change needed. They recognised the importance of having a culture where colleagues feel they belong, can grow, and are empowered to make decisions that benefit the Co-op’s members and communities, and realised that this has to start with strong leadership.

As a result, the Co-op is putting all its managers through enquiry-led leadership programmes to equip them with the necessary skills to engage and fully support their staff. They recently said: “We have a responsibility not just to provide jobs, but to create workplaces where people can build meaningful, long-term careers. Stronger leaders mean stronger outcomes and a Co-op that’s more resilient and better equipped to make a positive local impact for years to come.”

By ensuring their managers have the right leadership skills to create a workplace where staff feel valued, supported and empowered, the Co-op is helping all their employees be happier and, in turn, ensuring they continue to reap the benefits of a happier, more engaged workforce. If we’re to cure the workplace unhappiness pandemic, the world needs more organisations like this.