Generation Numb: bibliography.
The following are the data points and sources that inform our infographic: Meet the post-pandemic workforce.
20% of workers said they would like to leave their employer but didn’t actually leave. (Allas, T. (2024). The hidden costs of quiet quitting, quantified. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/uk/our-insights/the-mckinsey-uk-blog/the-hidden-costs-of-quiet-quitting-quantified)
100% of C-suite leaders anticipate significant changes to their workforce. (Azagury, J., & Close, K. (2024). Change reinvented [PDF]. Accenture. https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/accenture-com/document-2/Accenture-Change-Reinvented-Report.pdf)
5 years in 60 days: McKinsey reported businesses jumped forward 5 years in digital transformation in the first 60 days of lockdown. (Baig, A., Hall, B., Jenkins, P., Lamarre, E., & McCarthy, B. (2020). The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-covid-19-recovery-will-be-digital-a-plan-for-the-first-90-days)
Studies show “employee cynicism and organizational change are positively associated” ie when one is high, so is the other. And that cynicism over time leads to resistance.. (Behazad, T. (2020). Employee cynicism and organizational change. Market Forces, 15(1), 16–40. https://core.ac.uk/reader/327251690)
85% of senior leaders have been involved in two or more major transformations in the last five years alone. (Gardner, E., & Fealy, L. (2022). How do you harness the power of people to double transformation success? EY. https://www.ey.com/en_gl/insights/consulting/how-transformations-with-humans-at-the-center-can-double-your-success)
Political anxiety leads to “reduced job performance due to decreased productivity and impaired concentration.”. (Gomez Mojica, M., Sjoberg-Varney, T. L., Rodriguez-Fernandez, R., Renshaw, A., Ebringer, A., & Kalia, N. (2024). It is time for employers to recognize and address political anxiety in the workplace. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 66(8), e379–e381. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000003156)
69% of remote workers [US] report increased burnout from digital communication tools. (Haan, K. (2024). Internet surveillance in the workplace: 43% report having their online activity monitored. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/internet-surveillance-workplace/)
10-year low in employee engagement. (Harter, J. (2025). U.S. employee engagement sinks to 10-year low. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/654911/employee-engagement-sinks-year-low.aspx)
73% of employees report their organisation has undergone some form of disruptive change in the past year. (Harter, J., & Wigert, B. (2025). The post-pandemic workplace: The experiment continues. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/657629/post-pandemic-workplace-experiment-continues.aspx)
Job burnout at 66% all time high. (Karmali, M. (2025). Over half of American employees have used AI to take workplace training, according to new data. Moodle. https://moodle.com/us/news/ai-for-workplace-training-in-america/)
49% of employees are ‘struggling’ or ‘suffering’. (Pendell, R. (2024). U.S. employee life evaluation hits new record low. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/653396/employee-life-evaluation-hits-new-record-low.aspx)
44% of workers say their work stress has increased due to the pandemic. (Petitta, L., & Ghezzi, V. (2023). Remote, disconnected, or detached? Examining the effects of psychological disconnectedness and cynicism on employee performance, wellbeing, and work–family interface. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(13), 6318. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136318)
Almost 2/3 of workers say the pace of change at work has increased. (PwC. (2024). Global workforce hopes and fears survey. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/workforce/hopes-and-fears.html#lead-in-new-ways-to-build-resilience-among-a-stressed-out-workforce)
61% of people globally believe business leaders purposely try to mislead. (Ries, T. (2024). Trust barometer global report [PDF]. Edelman. https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2024-02/2024%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report_FINAL.pdf)
80% of workforce report ‘Productivity Anxiety’. (Robinson, B. (2024, June 15). 80% of employees report ‘productivity anxiety’ and lower well-being in new study. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/06/15/80-of-employees-report-productivity-anxiety-and-lower--well-being-in-new-study/)
27% of employees feel professionally “stuck” in their current role due to economic or other external factors. (Rodriguez, R. (2025). Rise of revenge quitting. Software Finder. https://softwarefinder.com/resources/rise-of-revenge-quitting)
Only 38% of employees are willing to support change, down from 74% in 2016.(Turner, J. (2022). This new strategy could be your ticket to change management success. Gartner. Adopt This New 14x More Successful Change Management Strategy | Gartner)
Employees are feeling overwhelmed by change at work: 71% of employees; 86% of 16 – 24 year olds. 54% of change-fatigued workers are a looking for a new job. (Westfall, B. (2022). Change fatigue is making employee burnout worse. Capterra. https://www.capterra.com/human-resource-software/change-fatigue-in-the-workplace/#methodology)
Under 50% of employees know what is expected of them at work. 55% of organisations are reporting team restructuring. 30% record low in employee connection to company mission. (Wigert, B., & Tatel, C. (2024). The great detachment: Why employees feel stuck. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/653711/great-detachment-why-employees-feel-stuck.aspx)
45% of organisations report a ‘low trust’ culture. (Wyatt, H. (2024). Employee trust has declined since 2022, study finds. HR Magazine. https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/employee-trust-has-declined-since-2022-study-finds/)
Full bibliography:
Ahir, H., Bloom, N., & Furceri, D. (n.d.). World uncertainty index.
Allas, T. (2024). The hidden costs of quiet quitting, quantified. McKinsey & Company.
Azagury, J., & Close, K. (2024). Change reinvented [PDF]. Accenture.
Baig, A., Hall, B., Jenkins, P., Lamarre, E., & McCarthy, B. (2020). The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days. McKinsey & Company.
Behazad, T. (2020). Employee cynicism and organizational change. Market Forces, 15(1), 16–40.
Boyd, R. (2025, May 20). Almost half of young people would prefer a world without internet, UK study finds. The Guardian.
Carter, B. (2004, May 8). ‘Friends’ finale’s audience is the fourth biggest ever. The New York Times.
Cholteeva, Y. (2023). Third of employees do not see their workplace as a community, research finds. People Management.
Constanza, D. (2018, April 25). Can we please stop talking about generations as if they are a thing? Slate.
Costanza, D. P., Darrow, J. B., Yost, A. B., & Severt, J. B. (2017). A review of analytical methods used to study generational differences: Strengths and limitations. Work, Aging and Retirement, 3(2), 149–165.
De Morree, P. (2016). What it’s like to work the Spotify way. Corporate Rebels.
Dhingra, N., Samo, A., Schaninger, B., & Schrimper, M. (2021). Help your employees find purpose—or watch them leave. McKinsey & Company.
Doctorow, C. (2022). How monopoly enshittified Amazon. Medium
Fitzgerald, T. (2019, May 20). ‘Game of Thrones’ finale by the numbers: All the show’s ratings records. Forbes.
Gardner, E., & Dutta, S. (2021). The future of transformation is human [PDF]. EY.
Gardner, E., & Fealy, L. (2022). How do you harness the power of people to double transformation success? EY.
Gartner. (2020, October 14). Gartner cautions HR leaders that the risk of change fatigue among employees has doubled in 2020 [Press release].
Gomez Mojica, M., Sjoberg-Varney, T. L., Rodriguez-Fernandez, R., Renshaw, A., Ebringer, A., & Kalia, N. (2024). It is time for employers to recognize and address political anxiety in the workplace. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 66(8), e379–e381.
Güntner, A., & Sperling, J. (2017). How to nudge your way to better performance. McKinsey & Company.
Haan, K. (2024). Internet surveillance in the workplace: 43% report having their online activity monitored. Forbes.
Harter, J. (2025). U.S. employee engagement sinks to 10-year low. Gallup.
Harter, J., & Wigert, B. (2025). The post-pandemic workplace: The experiment continues. Gallup.
Hopkins, K. (2025). Strategies to build readiness for transformational change [PDF]. Gartner.
Human-ology. (2025). The new human instinct: Taking my power back [PDF].
IDEO. (2022). Experts on the front lines.
Kamp, S. (2025). The habit blueprint: Charles Duhigg’s guide to lasting culture change. Betterworks.
Karmali, M. (2025). Over half of American employees have used AI to take workplace training, according to new data. Moodle.
Keller, C., & Viltz-Emerson, M. (2023). The business case for change management when driving organization transformation. WTW.
King-Hill, S. (2015). Critical analysis of Maslow’s hierarchy of need. The STeP Journal Student Teacher Perspectives, 2(4), 54–57.
Meyersohn, N. (2024, July 19). A major shift at Starbucks is changing its personality. CNN Business.
Nobl. (n.d.). How Google’s TGIF meetings empower employees.
Pendell, R. (2024). U.S. employee life evaluation hits new record low. Gallup.
Petitta, L., & Ghezzi, V. (2023). Remote, disconnected, or detached? Examining the effects of psychological disconnectedness and cynicism on employee performance, wellbeing, and work–family interface. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(13), 6318.
PwC. (2024). Global workforce hopes and fears survey.
PwC. (2024). Workers embrace AI and prioritise skills growth amid rising workloads and an accelerating pace of change: PWC 2024 Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey [Press release].
Ries, T. (2024). Trust barometer global report [PDF]. Edelman.
RNZ. (2024). We scroll through 300ft of newsfeed a day, and bad news gets most attention. Association for Psychological Science.
Robinson, B. (2024, June 15). 80% of employees report ‘productivity anxiety’ and lower well-being in new study. Forbes.
Rodriguez, R. (2025). Rise of revenge quitting. Software Finder.
Roser, M. (2023). Technology over the long run: Zoom out to see how dramatically the world can change within a lifetime. Our World in Data.
Schroter, J. (2012). Steve Jobs introduces iPhone in 2007 [Video]. YouTube.
Skiera, A. J. (2024). What Gen Z thinks about its social media and smartphone usage. The Harris Poll.
Turner, J. (2022). This new strategy could be your ticket to change management success. Gartner.
Valente, C. M. (2022). Stop talking to each other and start buying things: Three decades of survival in the desert of social media. Welcome to Garbagetown.
Weilenmann, S., Schnyder, U., Parkinson, B., Corda, C., von Känel, R., & Pfaltz, M. C. (2018). Emotion transfer, emotion regulation, and empathy-related processes in physician-patient interactions and their association with physician well-being: A theoretical model. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9, Article 389.
Westfall, B. (2022). Change fatigue is making employee burnout worse. Capterra.
Whiting, K. (2023, March 13). This is why ‘polycrisis’ is a useful way of looking at the world right now. World Economic Forum.
Wigert, B., & Tatel, C. (2024). The great detachment: Why employees feel stuck. Gallup.
Williams, S. (2024). UK adults online for 76% of waking hours, study finds. IT Brief.
Wyatt, H. (2024). Employee trust has declined since 2022, study finds. HR Magazine.