Typical manager responsibilities, in addition to ones that have sprung up or intensified in recent years, have many managers feeling overwhelmed.
Bill Varie/Getty Images
You should probably check in and see how your manager is doing.
Employee engagement at work fell in 2024, fueled by a drop among managers especially, a new report found.
Growing job responsibilities have created "an overwhelming feeling" for managers, Gallup's chief scientist told BI.
It's a tough time to be a manager, and a new report shows many of them are feeling the pressure right about now.
Global employee engagement in 2024 fell, driven largely by a decrease in managers' engagement at work, according to Gallup's 2025 State of the Global Workplace report published Wednesday.
"Managers have a lot of things coming at them, and I think we really have to think about what managers are mainly responsible for," Jim Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for workplace management and wellbeing, told Business Insider.
Around the world, employee engagement fell from 23% to 21% last year, costing the global economy approximately $438 billion in lost productivity, the report estimates. It's only fallen twice in the last 12 years, the other time being in 2020.
While individual contributors saw their engagement stay the same at 18%, manager engagement dropped from 30% to 27%.
"If you go to the micro level, to the team level, managers with higher engagement have higher team engagement. Managers with lower engagement have lower," said Harter. "So the role of the manager is just critical to getting this right."
Breaking out specific groups, managers under 35 and female managers saw a 5% and a 7% drop in engagement, respectively.
The report drew from data from 227,347 employed respondents ages 15 and up, with responses collected from April 2024 to December 2024.
For engagement specifically, respondents were asked to give their level of agreement on a scale of 1 to 5 regarding 12 statements on topics like support, professional development, company mission, and purpose at work. Based on their responses, they were determined to be engaged, not engaged, or actively disengaged.
Managers are naturally in a delicate position, juggling senior leaders' demands from one direction and their direct reports' desires from another.
But the last few years have also introduced new responsibilities for many managers in addition to their traditional duties, as the report notes. Think supply chain disruptions, a job market roller coaster, the introduction of AI tools, and growing employee desires for flexibility following pandemic-era remote work.
"The new demands coupled with the old demands of the manager's job have caused kind of an overwhelming feeling for a lot of managers," said Harter.
So what can be done about manager engagement, and as a result broader employee engagement? Gallup's report highlights upskilling and training.
Employers should provide basic role training for new managers; only 44% of managers globally say they've gotten management training, according to the report. Managers new and old would also benefit from ongoing coaching in management best practices and having someone at work who actively encourages their development, the report noted.
Harter also recommends managers set clear expectations with employees, have regular check-ins ideally once a week, and have a system in which each person "knows how well they're doing in terms of how they perform individually, how they collaborate with their team, and then how they bring value to the customers that the organization is serving."
"I think performance management and employee engagement and wellbeing all can fit together if we really help managers," Harter said. "Managers can get better if they have the right kind of ongoing training and learning that goes with the role."
McManus and Komori opened the Boise-based restaurant in 2020.
Leslie Scott for BI
Kin is an Idaho prix fixe restaurant with a work culture rooted in collaboration and equality.
The business, owned by Kris Komori and Remi McManus, offers salaries to all full-time staff.
This article is part of "Made to Order," a series highlighting the business strategies driving today's food industry.
At Kin's prix fixe restaurant, the menu changes every five weeks, and it's always a group project.
Having five or more staff members work together to brainstorm a tasting menu, divide up the cooking, and gather ingredients may seem like a recipe for disaster, but Kris Komori and Remi McManus, the co-owners of Kin, don't mind the challenge. Collaboration is integral to their restaurant, even if it requires some trial and error.
"We don't necessarily have general managers and things like that," McManus said. "We all work as an entity and as a unit."
This mindset even extends to how Komori and McManus tackle payroll and prioritize pay equality. The owners offer all full-time staff a salary with benefits like paid time off and health insurance. This differs from the typical restaurant model in which some staff receive the minimum wage for tipped workers, while mainly relying on optional gratuities.
In a rapidly changing industry known for burnout and top-down management, Kin's approach to work culture might be less common. But Komori, who's also Kin's head chef, said the Boise restaurant had always been an outlier.
"We're not trying to change an entire restaurant industry or even Boise itself, but we did know that we could create something a little bit different," Komori said.
Their efforts have paid off. In 2023, Komori won a James Beard Award, and in 2024, Food & Wine listed the restaurant as one of the top 20 restaurants in the country.
On separate calls, Komori and McManus spoke with Business Insider about how they foster employee well-being at Kin — and how other restaurants can adopt a better workplace culture, too.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Some staff members take on different responsibilities in the restaurant, like graphic design and bookkeeping, based on their interests.
Leslie Scott for BI
Business Insider: Tell me a bit about Kin's work environment. How do you try to set yourself apart when it comes to employee well-being?
Remi McManus: For years in the restaurant industry, there's been a big discrepancy in pay, especially from the front and back of the house. We try to develop equality through equal pay for all staff members. Our goals have been to develop more professionalism in the industry in Idaho and provide for our staff and our community more than we used to at my previous restaurant, State & Lemp.
Kris Komori: Part of the core competency of the business is connecting to our guests and community, but it's mostly about connecting with our crew. It's still long hours and stressful at times, but if we can have people be excited to come to work instead of dreading it, it's just a happier place to be.
Staff members often take inspiration from their own life experiences when brainstorming menu themes and dishes.
Leslie Scott for BI
How have you developed a sustainable business model that can account for having staff on salary?
McManus: It's important for employees to take ownership of their duties. This means engaging them in different responsibilities that play to their strengths and discussing things they would like to see done in the restaurant. We have a graphic designer who is a service staff member and helps us to do social media posts and graphic design for menus. We've had a bartender who moved on to be our full-time bookkeeper. We have individuals who have experiences outside the restaurant that we can utilize to change the dynamic of what this space really is. While most people see us as a restaurant, we see ourselves more as a community engagement center with food and beverage as the vehicle.
Komori: Since our tasting room is reservation-only, we know how many people are coming in and what their allergies or dietary restrictions are. Based on our capacity, we also know how much to order and prep. We can be efficient on the cost of goods and then put that into the payroll.
McManus and Komori try to limit staff members to 45 hours a week to reduce burnout.
Leslie Scott for BI
Why do you think a community-focused work culture is a less common approach in most kitchens and restaurants?
McManus: It's very expensive. Restaurants are fairly transient, and other owners don't potentially have the time or desire to invest as much into their employees. We're called Kin for many reasons, but one is because 100% of the staff that was with us at State & Lemp came over to Kin. It felt like we were a family creating a new establishment.
Komori: One reason why a lot of places don't do it is because you have to also get a lot of buy-in from the team in terms of rotating schedules, knowing that everyone deserves the time off. Sometimes that requires stepping in. If someone's on vacation, then everyone's got to pull a little bit more, but then you yourself go on vacation and the other people do that for you.
It's a compromise to staff saying you can have a career, sustainable finances, and days off in a restaurant. Because we have more people on staff, we can rotate schedules. As long as everyone has buy-in and supports each other, it works really well.
The crew collaborates on each tasting menu from conceptualization to preparation.
Leslie Scott for BI
How does prioritizing collaboration and creativity help foster a more welcoming workplace?
McManus: Any employee wants to feel like they're valued at work. Because we are a small staff, we're able to engage with them on a day-to-day basis. Whether it be collaboration on a dish or activities outside the workplace, developing these intimate relationships is baked into our ethos.
When we come up with menu ideas, it's not necessarily just Kris or myself. Being able to rely on the individuals that have been here for years and also some of the new individuals for ideas is probably the best thing that we can do. People who have been doing something over and over and over again for years — they need new ideas. The collaboration process is probably one of the most effective things that we have in the restaurant right now.
Komori: Everyone that comes in here wants to create. What's cool about our tasting room is that it starts with one dish, but over time, the staff is creating dozens of dishes, and they start to notice their own style. They're also learning how to plan, order at a cost, and write a prep schedule. It's really important because probably a quarter of the kitchen will want to have their own place, or at least become a chef with their own team. It's a lot to change the menu, but it's also fun.
McManus and Komori started working together at State & Lemp before opening Kin.
Leslie Scott for BI
How can other chefs and owners adopt this workplace culture and sustain these practices?
McManus: We accept gratuities, but we use them to fund the salaries. I believe, in some larger cities, there are restaurants that have gone away from optional gratuities and just added them to the bill or increased the pricing so they can have a similar pay structure.
Komori: We're always wondering if the way that we're doing things is the best way to do it. You just have to be wanting to change. You ask your staff, "Hey, we want to try something to benefit the business and to benefit you. Are you willing to experiment with it?" And then you course-correct.
We have good retention, and our guests are happy to support a place trying to healthily and sustainably support its crew. So we get loyalty from customers, which stabilizes the revenue and helps sustain the system.
Kin's communal dining style expands on the restaurant's core concept of connection.
Leslie Scott for BI
How do you think restaurants can be more than just places to eat and places to work for guests and staff?
McManus: It just comes down to culture. If you take the time and energy to learn more about the staff, have those conversations, communicate, and give ownership, then that shows in the staff members and that shows to the guests and community.
Komori: Partly the reason we're named Kin is not only because we try to be like a loose-knit group of people that really align with each other, but also we want to have a feel like we're inviting people into our home. Because of that, we know a lot about our regulars. Sometimes we feel like a restaurant, but other times, we're more than a restaurant — we just happen to have our product be food and beverage. If we're going to work so hard, we want to feel good about it, and just cooking for someone over and over and over behind a wall, you lose that connection.
The number of people eating all their meals alone is rising.
RichVintage/Getty Images
About one in four US adults said they ate all their meals alone the previous day, new analysis found.
The 2025 World Happiness Report found solo dining spiked during the pandemic and remains elevated.
Sharing meals is a stronger predictor of well-being than income or unemployment, it found.
More and more Americans are dining alone, and researchers say doing so regularly can be a better predictor of unhappiness than unemployment.
"Asking people if they shared at least one meal last week can tell us more about their overall life evaluation than knowing if they are unemployed," the researchers said in the 2025 World Happiness Report, published on Thursday.
It found that 26% of US adults surveyed said they ate every meal alone the previous day. That figure rose by more than 50% between 2003 and 2023.
The data was drawn from the American Time Use Survey, which collected responses from about 235,000 US adults over the two-decade period.
The report said people who share more meals with others report significantly higher levels of life satisfaction, and lower levels of negative affect. That's the case across ages, genders, countries, cultures, and regions.
The rise in solo dining started well before the COVID-19 pandemic, with a spike in 2011, before reaching some of the highest levels at the height of the pandemic. It's continued rising, especially for young people, with the highest levels of dining alone recorded among those under 35 — along with those who live alone.
In 2023, nearly 70% of people who lived alone reported eating all their meals alone, compared to 20% for those who lived with others.
By order of comparison, the US ranked 69th globally in meal sharing, standing behind Canada, which ranked 53rd with 8.4 meals shared a week, and ahead of the UK, which ranked 81st.
Causes and impact on happiness
The report attributes the rise in solo dining to the rise in the number of people living alone, irregular work schedules, and the rise of remote work.
While smartphones and social media are often blamed for reduced social interaction, the report found no direct correlation between the platforms' launches in the mid-2000s and the rise in eating alone.
The report also analyzed survey responses for 142 countries collected by the Gallup World Poll in 2022 and 2023. It found that sharing more meals is strongly linked to higher life evaluations and better emotional health across regions, genders, and age groups, making it a key factor in overall life satisfaction.
The happiness report finds that meal sharing is a stronger predictor of well-being than income and unemployment combined, and dining alone has a greater impact on life evaluation than unemployment.
The US slipped to its lowest ranking in the 13-year history of the World Happiness Report, landing at 24th place, partly because of the rising number of people eating alone.
Another issue highlighted in the report is the US's high and increasing rate of "deaths of despair" — preventable deaths from suicide, alcohol abuse, and drug overdose.
Since the report's launch in 2012, the US has never ranked in the top 10, with its highest ranking being 11th in the report's first year.
Simone Biles is an elite athlete and one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, but she recently admitted she struggled to get through a workout.
Biles apparently took some time off after she won her fifth, sixth and seventh Olympic gold medals earlier this year in Paris.
But she recently resumed her workouts.
According to Biles' social media account, Pilates was at least part of her first post-Olympics workout, but her experience with the popular exercise was not something she is interested in doing again.
"First time working out since the olympics," the superstar gymnast wrote on her Instagram story Wednesday. "This is what I wore to a Pilates class that I will never be attending again! Y'all stay strong out there lmao. It was too hard."
Joseph Pilates is credited with developing the exercise. A typical Pilates class involves machines, which use bands and movable benches.
Exercises focus on Improving flexibility and building muscle strength. When done properly, Pilates has also been known to help lower back and leg muscles.
Biles has not ruled out competing again in the Olympics.
"Never say never. The next Olympics is at home. So, you just never know. But I am getting really old," Biles, 27, said in August.
The Summer Games are scheduled to return to the U.S. in 2028, when athletes from across the globe descend upon Los Angeles. It will mark the first time since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics an American city hosts the summer edition of the Games.
In addition to the three gold medals she earned at the Paris Olympics, Biles also won silver in the floor exercise.
All Elite Wrestling stars Adam Copeland and Christian Cage are far from the spry athletes they once were when they were world and tag team champions at the height of their careers.
Copeland, 51, has dealt with neck and leg injuries in recent years, while Cage, also 51 and whose real name is Jay Reso, has battled his own share of injuries. To be able to do normal day-to-day activities and prolong their own careers, something had to change.
Copeland and Reso, longtime friends, developed and launched Pure Plank, creating a way "to revolutionize the planking experience, making it comfortable, functional and engaging for everyone."
Copeland said he came to a realization when he was having a perfectly normal interaction with his children.
"I have two kids, and it wasn’t until one day I was carrying them up the stairs, and we’re probably talking 60 pounds. And I got to the top, and I was exhausted," Copeland told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "’Oh, that’s no good.’ I hadn’t really been watching my diet. I hadn’t really been working out the way I used to. I slacked, I got lazy. But then I realized I need to get in better shape for these girls because they need me around. They need dad for as long as possible.
"I decided to start with exercises that I thought were a good starting off point, not to get demoralized by going, ‘Man, I used to be able to do way better than this.’ That kind of thing. So, I started planking. I’d done it before, and I realize how effective it is for your core. And if your core’s strong, then chances are everything else will follow suit."
Reso told Fox News Digital he was working on getting in shape for his wrestling comeback during the coronavirus pandemic and was building a small gym in his garage trying to find small pieces of equipment to work out with.
He said he talked to Copeland about planking, previously dismissing the workout. He said once he tried it, he couldn’t hold a plank for even 30 seconds.
"I was by myself in the garage, and I was still embarrassed that I was supposed to be this high-level athlete, and I couldn’t even hold a plank for 30 seconds," Reso said. "So, the way my mind works is if I’m not good at something, I become obsessed with it until I am good at it. From that moment on, I became obsessed with planking.
"I started to do it every day, and I saw, as my core started to strengthen, I was able to hold a plank longer. And that, along with changing my eating habits, I saw my body transform like it never had in the past. At 47 years old, I had a six-pack which I never had before."
Reso said planking became something he does daily, and it turned into a business idea.
"Living in Florida in the summertime, working out, you sweat like crazy," he said. "So, I found myself losing the position of the exercise. So, I started to think to myself there had to be a better way to hold the position that when you get sweating and your elbows start to slide out from underneath you, and to me not having to stop resting, that takes away some of the effectiveness of the exercise. That’s where the idea for the handles came in to hold you in the position at all times and to pretty much put you in the proper position right away.
"That was the goal of Pure Plank, to make it just put people in the proper position to be able to hold right away."
Since Copeland and Reso had been friends for so long, there was no hesitation about getting into business together.
The other bright side was being able to have a pro wrestling career again.
"What I think it did is it got our careers back," Copeland told Fox News Digital. "And that, to me, is the biggest thing. I was retired for nine years. Jay was retired for seven years. And we found ourselves both back in the ring. It was the gateway I like to think. Starting the planking was the gateway to getting the diet back in check, to feeling better, to having more energy, to just waking up and feeling like you want to conquer the day instead of letting the day conquer you."
Reso added that with all the punishment the body can take in pro wrestling, the comfort of the board itself "doesn’t make it impossible to plank" if the user has shoulder or back problems.
"I do believe planking helps and will prolong our careers, especially at our ages," he said. "It’s good for everybody for everyday life and to get that core as tight as you possibly can. Everything else kinda follows suit, and that’s what’s so kind of great about planking. It’s a whole body exercise."
