In a year of a hiring recession and increasing anxiety about AI and return-to-office policies, employees are feeling less confidence in their employers than ever.
Glassdoor, the online review platform for employees, recently revisited some workplace and job market trends it had predicted at the end of 2025. This week, its research team published a mid-year report that showed a significant disconnect between employees and senior leadership. Here are the key findings:
Leaders are misaligned, disconnected, distrusted, hypocritical, and bad communicators
Employees showed low satisfaction rates between 2024 and 2025, and those rates have only plummeted further, according to Glassdoor Economic Research.
Average senior leadership ratings in Glassdoor reviews fell below 3.5, the lowest since 2017.
In reviews that mentioned leadership, year-over-year change in keyword prevalence included “misalignment” with a 95% increase, “disconnect” with a 52% increase, “distrust” with a 18% increase, “hypocrisy” with a 4% increase, and “miscommunication” with a 9% decrease.
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When the layoffs never stop
As part of its research, Glassdoor analyzed WARN Act notices—which are required by U.S. law and mandate that employers inform employees, local governments, and state agencies 60 days before a mass layoff or closing.
These notices showed that small layoffs made up 50% of fillings in 2026, slightly lower than in 2023 to 2025, but higher than prior years.
Glassdoor’s report shows that layoffs loom large in employees’ minds, and anxiety about layoffs and job security is skyrocketing. In 2026, mentions of insecurity increased 63%, while explicit mentions of layoffs increased 29%.
Even employees who have survived layoffs are still left with anxiety. Layoffs are shown to have a persistent negative effect on workplace culture, lasting multiple years.
Return-to-office policies
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people primarily working remotely tripled, according to the U.S. Census.
While a plethora of employees have since returned to the office, remote or hybrid working has become more normalized. However, companies have more recently been mandating strict return-to-office policies.
This left employees with a difficult decision, according to Glassdoor. Either maintain remote and hybrid flexibility, or pursue faster career growth and return to the office.
The reports show that work-from-home rates have declined slowly, as employers put pressure on employees to return and limit remote options.
The percentage of full-time work days spent working from home decreased from 27.2% in 2025 to 25.7% in 2026, while employees with fully remote jobs decreased from 12.5% in 2025 to 11.1% in 2026.
Hybrid work numbers were more stable, practically unchanged from 27.1% in 2025 to 26.8% in 2026.
Employee satisfaction among remote workers and hybrid workers have also been declining. Remote workers report lower worklife balance ratings than hybrid workers.
The continued rise in AI
From 2022 to 2025, employee satisfaction in occupations highly exposed to AI declined only slightly. While Glassdoor predicted this number would continue falling, the decrease has been more rapid than anticipated.
AI is swiftly impacting the workplace, with broad concerns about the technology not being limited to employees in jobs at risk of direct replacement.
Glassdoor reviews that mention AI-related keywords have more than tripled 240%, with AI being mentioned more than other pressing issues, such as inflation.
Employees are concerned by leaders demanding the use of AI, while also using AI as an excuse for layoffs.
In 2025, discussions on AI were more optimistic: 55% positive as compared to 41% negative. However, in 2026, sentiment was 53% negative and 43% positive.