The ongoing paralysis in public sector institutions has impacted Lebanon's ranking on regional and international lists measuring employee performance and the harshness of working conditions. Meanwhile, a series of strikes continues, with employees refusing to attend work and engaging in intermittent partial attendance, protesting the widening gap between their low incomes due to the deteriorating exchange rate and the fully dollarized living requirements, as reported by "Asharq Al-Awsat". Lebanon ranked second to last in the Middle East and North Africa in terms of employee participation in the workplace, with the participation rate dropping to 8% according to international measurement standards, while the thriving life index only accounted for 4% of the total population.
**Stress, Sadness, and Anger**
A recent international report released by Gallup, a global performance management consulting company, revealed that over two-thirds of employees (68%) experience daily stress in their work environment, and approximately 41% are in a state of daily sadness, resulting in nearly 40% of workers feeling anger, which is the third highest rate in the region. This translates to more than half of the total employees expressing a desire to leave their jobs and seek alternative employment.
The results, based on field surveys included in Gallup's World Workplace Report for 2024, shed light on employees' conditions in their work environments and lives to assess the performance and resilience of institutions. Data is collected through interviews—either in person or via phone calls—covering more than 160 countries and targeting at least 1,000 employees in each country.
The data documentation relies on four metrics, including employee participation to measure their enthusiasm at work, overall daily negative emotions to investigate the presence of stress and anger in the workplace, the job market perspective to determine employees' views on the work climate and their willingness to leave their positions or join new organizations, and life evaluation metrics to gauge survey participants' satisfaction with their life circumstances, along with their views on their current and future conditions.
**Weak Salaries**
Public sector strikes in Lebanon have paralyzed official departments in recent months, which closed their doors in protest against the government's failure to provide an acceptable salary increase and the discrimination among public sector employees, amidst the suffering of workers whose salaries have greatly diminished. The government provides assistance without increasing base salaries.
To contain this crisis, the government raised social assistance, leading employees to receive amounts equivalent to 10 times their salaries at the previous official exchange rate, which lost more than 98% of its value compared to the actual dollar rate, after the lira's value deteriorated from 1,500 lira per dollar to 90,000 lira per dollar. However, these increases did not reflect in base salaries and only barely cover employees' daily living expenses, bills, and obligations such as energy, education, and health insurance costs.
Gallup's report provided figures indicating that 14% of employees in the Middle East and North Africa were classified as participating in the workplace, while the percentage of those not participating expanded to 61%, with around a quarter of the total being disengaged from the activities of their companies. Additionally, 52% of regional employees experience daily stress, compared to 32% who feel daily anger, 26% who feel sadness, and 23% who experience loneliness.
**$8.9 Trillion Cost of Working Without Passion**
Globally, according to Gallup's report, 23% of employees surveyed are classified as positively engaged, the highest rate since the report's launch in 2009 according to Lebanese Credit Bank research, while it was found that 62% of employees are disengaged, meaning they work without passion, alongside 15% of employees who are dissatisfied with their jobs and hinder their colleagues' achievements.
These findings are crucial for planning and managing human resources in institutions, as the report highlights that a low level of employee engagement negatively impacts the global economy, costing approximately $8.9 trillion, equivalent to 9% of the global GDP, according to "Asharq Al-Awsat".
