You once dreamed of the job you have now. During your interview process, you had your fingers, toes and everything else crossed hoping for the job offer. Thinking back to your first few months at work, you were so filled with excitement – ready to take on challenges, and high on the thrill of new people to meet, impress and prove yourself to. That person seems like a stranger to you now – a past life that you lost touch with. These days you show up to work, put in your time, tick off your to-dos and clock off. No excitement, no thrill, nothing to prove.

If I’m describing you, keep reading.

First off – no, it’s not just you. What you’re feeling is called employee disengagement, and it’s running rampant. Recent research from Gallup found that employee engagement has dropped to its lowest point in more than a decade, with workers feeling less satisfied with their organisations, less clear on their role, less connected to their company’s mission and less likely to feel that someone at work cares about them.

“Increased workloads mean we don’t have time to really think about why we’re doing what we’re doing; we don’t question or challenge the work and we blindly follow what we’re being asked to do. This leads to a lack of connection with the work itself,” says Aoife O’Brien, a careers consultant and founder of the Happier At Work podcast.

Following a downward trend in employee engagement manifesting in quiet quitting and ‘quit-tok’, the UK’s employee engagement rate ranks an unimpressive 33 out of 38 in Europe, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report. And not only are employee engagement levels falling, but significant portions of the workforce are actively disengaged, including those under 35 and Gen-Z workers, in particular, the data shows. 

So what’s going on? We’re becoming less invested in our jobs for three important reasons: we’re missing purpose or meaning in our work, we lack true flexibility around how we work and we need steady career progression, growth and development.

“After our basic and psychological needs are met, we want to fulfil our purpose and find meaning in life,” said mindset coach Elyssa Desai. “Most people look to their work to give their life meaning, and when it doesn’t, it can feel like something’s missing.”

In a post-pandemic working world, there’s still so much debate about how, where and when workers should be allowed to do their jobs. 

O’Brien tells Stylist: “One of our universal needs at work is autonomy. It’s important to get the balance right but what you shouldn’t do – and what is effectively happening now – is give people a load of autonomy (like during the pandemic) and then take it away from them (return to office mandates). This is causing disengagement at work.”

Desai adds: “Many companies offer at least two days working from home, but this is now the norm, so what are they doing to offer even more flexibility to re-engage employees? Working from home but being constantly checked on also isn’t the flexibility people want. There must be trust for people to feel engaged with their workplace.”

And when it comes to progression, working professionals want to continually learn, grow and move up to reach new heights and meet new challenges rather than stay in the same position with stunted growth and learning for years and years.

“People want to feel like they are moving forward in their career, but companies aren’t always able to keep up with the pace at which people want to progress,” Desai says.

Change, challenge and communication are key between you and your organisation when it comes to engagement at work. To get that magic back and feel good at work again, try one of these creative techniques from O’Brien and Desai.

Take it at face value

Identify your core values to understand what really matters to you and compare those to your company’s values. To make it fun, try using value cards or make a values bingo card and tick off when you’ve demonstrated your company’s values or your own.

Strut your stuff

Walk the floors when you’re in the office – say hello and chat to your colleagues. This not only helps you build connections with others, which is a great way to feel like there is more meaning to your work, but it also makes you more visible, which can lead to interesting career opportunities.

Shine the light

Celebrate a colleague each week by shouting them out in a meeting, sending an email to their manager or to the team Slack channel. This helps you feel you’re making a positive impact in someone else’s life. Plus, by proactively cheerleading others, the spotlight will likely radiate back to you.

The complainer container

Venting can be helpful in doses but often when you don’t enjoy your job you can fall into a never-ending cycle of moaning, which means your mind focuses on negatives all the more. Create a ‘complainer container’, where you have to add money to a jar every time you catch yourself moaning about your job.

Grace your workspace

Transform your desk, whether at work or home, into one that brings you joy. Dress it up with plants and fresh flowers. Dust off your framed photos, light up a candle or display Post-it notes with encouraging messages to lift your mood. 

Whether you’re in a short-term work slump or you’re ready for your next step, feel power in knowing that, ultimately, you’re in control of your own engagement at work.

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Images: Adobe; Getty