Manager Burnout Statistics and Research for 2026

Managers sit in the middle of nearly every organizational pressure: executive priorities, employee expectations, restructures, return-to-office decisions and the daily work of coaching. Recent research shows a sharp deterioration in manager engagement alongside rising spans of control and persistent stress.

This collection focuses on managers and leaders where the source provides that cut. Broader worker statistics appear only when they explain the environment managers are operating in.

Headline manager burnout and engagement statistics

1. Global manager engagement fell from 27% in 2024 to 22% in 2025, a five-percentage-point decline. (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026)
2. Best-practice organizations achieved 79% manager engagement, nearly four times the global level. (Gallup)
3. Global employee engagement was 20% in 2025. (Gallup global data)
4. Global wellbeing stood at 34% in 2025. (Gallup global data)
5. Daily stress, anger and sadness remained above pre-pandemic levels. (Gallup global data)
6. DDI's Global Leadership Forecast found 71% of leaders reported increased stress in their role. (DDI, Global Leadership Forecast 2025)
7. 54% of leaders were concerned about burnout. (DDI)
8. DDI reported burnout among 57% of hybrid leaders. (DDI)
9. The rate was 56% among remote leaders. (DDI)
10. The rate was 52% among in-person leaders. (DDI)
11. The five-point range across work arrangements suggests location alone does not solve leader burnout. (DDI)

Gender and leadership burnout gaps

1. Across 2022–2025 averages, 29% of women in leadership roles reported feeling burned out very often or always. (Gallup)
2. The comparable rate for men in leadership roles was 19%. (Gallup)
3. That represents a 10-point leadership burnout gap. (Gallup)
4. Among managers, 34% of women reported frequent burnout across the period. (Gallup)
5. The comparable figure for men managers was 27%. (Gallup)
6. The manager-level gender gap was therefore 7 percentage points. (Gallup)
7. In the fourth quarter of 2025, 31% of women workers overall reported frequent burnout, compared with 23% of men. (Gallup)

These gaps should trigger a workload and opportunity audit, not assumptions about resilience. Examine team size, role ambiguity, caregiving flexibility, promotion load and the invisible work assigned to different managers.

Spans of control and the coaching burden

1. The average number of direct reports per manager rose from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025. (Gallup)
2. The 2025 average was nearly 50% higher than in 2013. (Gallup)
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data implies roughly one manager for every 11.5 employees. (Gallup analysis)
4. Gallup estimates 15 to 30 minutes per week can be enough for a meaningful conversation with an employee. (Gallup)
5. With 12 direct reports, that alone represents 3 to 6 hours of focused conversation each week, before preparation, documentation and follow-up. This is a calculation from Gallup's ranges, not a separately surveyed statistic.
6. Only 16% of roughly 15,000 surveyed employees said their most recent conversation with a manager was extremely meaningful. (Gallup)
7. Across seven studies and 44,025 responses, about 7 in 10 employees who received meaningful feedback were engaged. (Gallup)
8. Only about 1 in 4 employees without meaningful feedback were engaged. (Gallup)

Manager capability and feedback blind spots

1. Only 42% of employees said they could formally provide feedback about their manager. (Gallup)
2. Only 24% said they formally rated their manager. (Gallup)
3. 36% of managers reported receiving feedback from peers. (Gallup)
4. 40% of managers were not advanced or expert at employee engagement and performance management. (Gallup)
5. 60% were not advanced or expert at employee development and career-path conversations. (Gallup)
6. Gallup's study included 2,729 managers and 12,710 individual contributors. (Gallup)
7. 50% of managers believed they provided feedback weekly, but only 20% of employees said they received it weekly. (Gallup)
8. 60% of managers thought they recognized employees well. (Gallup)
9. Only 35% of employees agreed that recognition was done well. (Gallup)
10. Just 12% of employees had been asked how they preferred to be recognized. (Gallup)

Workload and insecurity around managers

1. 54% of U.S. workers said job insecurity significantly affected their stress in the American Psychological Association's 2025 Work in America survey. (APA)
2. In the APA's 2024 survey, 43% of workers reported feeling tense or stressed during the workday. (APA)
3. The rate rose to 61% among workers with low psychological safety. (APA)
4. Microsoft's survey of 31,000 people across 31 markets found 64% lacked enough time and energy to complete their work. (Microsoft Work Trend Index)
5. Those employees were 3.5 times more likely to report difficulty being innovative or thinking strategically. (Microsoft)
6. 60% of leaders were concerned that their teams lacked ideas or innovation. (Microsoft)

What organizations should measure

Do not reduce manager burnout to a resilience course. Track the work system that produces it:

• span of control, including dotted-line and project responsibilities;
• hours spent in recurring meetings, approvals and administrative work;
• percentage of managers with weekly protected coaching time;
• after-hours work and unused leave;
• role clarity and decision rights;
• burnout, engagement and intent to stay by manager level;
• frequency and quality of one-to-one conversations;
• access to manager training, peer support and upward feedback; and
• differences by gender, location, work arrangement and caregiving status.

If the organization increases team size, remove or automate work before expecting identical coaching quality. If managers are responsible for development, performance, wellbeing, change communication and delivery, capacity must be designed—not assumed.

EvalFlow helps managers structure check-ins, goals and evidence through its performance-management platform. Continue with our manager effectiveness statistics, one-on-one meeting statistics, employee development statistics and employee feedback statistics.

Research note

The figures combine global, U.S. and multinational studies with different definitions. “Burned out very often or always,” leader concern about burnout and employee engagement are related but not interchangeable. The work-arrangement comparison is descriptive and does not show that hybrid work causes burnout. Likewise, larger spans of control may reflect role design and industry; there is no single correct team size.

Frequently asked questions

Are managers more burned out than employees?

Managers face distinctive pressure and several Gallup datasets show deteriorating manager engagement and significant burnout. A universal manager-versus-employee rate cannot be inferred across all countries and occupations because measures and samples differ.

Does remote or hybrid work cause manager burnout?

DDI reported high burnout in every arrangement, with only a five-point spread between hybrid and in-person leaders. The data is descriptive. Workload, autonomy, coordination burden, role clarity and support are more actionable than treating location as the sole cause.

What is the ideal number of direct reports?

There is no universal number. Complexity, employee experience, task interdependence, geography and administrative support matter. Start with the coaching time required per person and calculate the actual weekly capacity of the manager.

How can HR identify manager burnout early?

Combine short validated pulse measures with operational indicators such as after-hours work, leave use, span changes, meeting load, missed one-to-ones, regrettable manager turnover and declining team feedback quality. Protect confidentiality and avoid using wellbeing responses to penalize managers.

Can performance-management software reduce manager burnout?

It can reduce duplicate administration, make expectations clearer and preserve evidence, but software cannot compensate for unmanageable workloads or unclear authority. Measure time saved and conversation quality, not just login activity.