When unhappy staff aren't quitting, HR must act to re-engage them

If you believe everything you read in the press (!), last week (19th January) apparently saw ‘Blue Monday’ – the ‘most depressing day of the year’ – while according to a study by a study by Crunch Accounting, it’s later on this week (the 31st January in fact), that employees are most likely to resign. Oh, and that’s not forgetting 4th February – the day when (apparently, most people pull a sickie to attend a job interview.

But will this really happen in 2026?

Thanks to the triple forces of rising unemployment, an actual fall in the number of UK payrolled employees, and 2025 ending with new job vacancies opening at their lowest since 2015, there’s a real problem in the job market – of people not having actually having anywhere to move to. According to experts, it means 2026 could more realistically be noted for people actually not quitting at all – which is bad news, because these stayers are miserable in their jobs at the same time.

Staying but sulking

“People are unhappy, but they’re not resigning; they’re staying and they’re sulking,” says a straight-talking Trovene Hartley, Chief People Officer at Capital City College – London’s largest further educations college. “The problem,” she adds, “is that these people aren’t just staying, they’re being very vocal about their displeasure about their lot, and it creates a raincloud over teams and productivity.” She continues: “When you ask people to articulate ‘why’ they’re unhappy though, you just get prickliness back in return.”

These disengaged, but unwilling/unable to leave employees are what some euphemistically call ‘job huggers’. But according to ‘Culture CEO’ Jeff Dewing, founder of Cloud, and author of ‘Doing the Opposite’ these people are down and out “detractors and terrorists,” who will cause HR more headaches by staying than if they were able to up-sticks and leave.

But what exactly are HR professionals to do with (some say) rising cohorts of employees who would rather leave, but can’t, and are staying but are actively disengaged? Do they bite their lips, and hope these people exit of their own accord soon? Is there an opportunity to turn these people around, or is trying to repoint people who just don’t want to stay a waste of everyone’s time or energy?

Should HR acquiesce or reacquaint?

“There’s no doubt employees are witnessing a gloomy landscape in front of them,” observes Georgina Badine, former financier, and latterly founder of Invicta Vita, a career coaching organisation supporting women and men different stages at their careers. “I think HR professionals will just have to accept that people will be stewing for a bit – especially mid-level people, if even senior staff are not willing to move, and it is just arguably something they have to accept.” She adds: “Yes, it’s depressing for HR folk, who instinctively want to help, but really unhappy people really just need to be able to leave.”

But is all of this a bit pessimistic, and doesn’t having a stable workforce present opportunities for engagement to be re-built?

Some think it does, if only to prevent HR’s focus moving away from people and culture: “Retention is not a success metric,” argues Dominic Ashy-Timms, CEO of performance consultancy Notion and co-author of the management bestseller The Answer is a Question—The Missing Superpower that Changes Everything and Will Transform Your Impact as a Manager and Leader. He says: “Retention risks a culture of complacency developing if outwardly, everything looks good. Even if leadership see that staff are staying because they don’t have anywhere else to go, this has the potential for leaders to revert back to more command and control styles, because they know they can get away with it.”

According to Ashy-Timms, disengagement is what he calls an “opportunity to re-recruit their people again,” by helping employees “get interested in their work again,” and he and others urge HR professionals to see the value in trying to do this, rather than just accept that these discontents will eventually leave.

“Not addressing dour outlooks does certainly leave productivity gains on the table, and it makes sense for HR professionals to try and regain hearts and minds before the economy picks up again,” says Caitlin Duffy Senior Research Director in Gartner’s Human Resources practice. She adds: “We don’t know when the talent market will shift, so it’s best to try and optimise these people while they are here. Re-engagement ‘can’ be achieved.”

This may not be what HR professionals want to hear – especially if they have mentally ‘given in’ to at-work ennui. But according to many, now is the time they really need to step up.