Mid-year reality check on work: Anxiety is up, trust is down, AI is everywhere
Mid-year reality check on work: Anxiety is up, trust is down, AI is everywhere
Publish Date: 2026-07-05 09:00:00
Source Domain: www.theglobeandmail.com
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Every year, workplace trend reports arrive with bold predictions about what’s ahead for workers and employers. Most simply make their forecasts, but job search and career community company Glassdoor has gone back to revisit their predictions for a mid-year review.
While the findings are based largely on U.S. labour market data and Glassdoor reviews from U.S. workers, many of the themes, including anxiety around artificial intelligence, leadership distrust and ongoing hiring uncertainty are also playing out in Canada.
One prediction Glassdoor says has proven accurate is that workplace anxiety would remain elevated. Rather than seeing another wave of mass layoffs, the company predicted workers would experience what it called “forever layoffs” – a steady stream of smaller job cuts that would keep workers operating in a low level of uncertainty.
That’s largely what has happened. While overall layoffs remain close to pre-pandemic levels, with 1.69 million workers laid off or discharged in April compared with a pre-pandemic average of 1.81 million, employee anxiety continues to rise. Mentions of job insecurity in Glassdoor reviews climbed 63 per cent year over year, while mentions of layoffs increased 29 per cent.
Another trend the company got right was deteriorating trust between employees and leadership. Glassdoor expected economic uncertainty, restructuring and unpopular workplace decisions to widen the gap between executives and employees. The average senior leadership ratings fell below 3.5 out of five in April, the lowest monthly score since 2017.
Employees are also increasingly using words such as “misalignment,” up 95 per cent from last year, “disconnect,” up 52 per cent, and “distrust,” up 18 per cent, when describing leadership in…
