Two seats left to attend the Digiday Media Buying Summit:

Join us Oct. 15-17 in Phoenix to connect with top media buyers

SECURE YOUR SEAT

‘It’s a landmine’: Why does no one trust each other at work?

This article was first published by Digiday sister site, WorkLife.

Organizations and business leaders are struggling to win the trust of their workers – and it’s a growing problem. 

What’s worse: it seems that the feeling is mutual. 

And like in any unhappy relationship, the retaliation of both parties is harsh. In the employer’s arsenal of weapons: layoffs, return-to-office mandates, poor transparency with workers, and dodgy digital surveillance tactics. In the employee’s corner: quiet quitting, acting your wage, and of course, actual quitting.

Ask most execs about internal trust, and most would agree (or at least appreciate the logic) that it is the glue for strong organizational culture, high productivity, and employee contentment – all of which typically correlate to business success. Most (88%) of the 14,000 leaders surveyed by Deloitte in its 2024 Human Capital Trends report, published in early February, said that an increased focus on trust and transparency between workers and their organization is important for business success, but only 13% said they’re making meaningful progress on that. A mere 16% of workers said they trusted their employer. Countless other recent reports have also highlighted a major disconnect between employers and their employees, and there’s no sign it’s abating.

So, why is trust on such a knife edge?

Read more on our sister site, WorkLife.

More in Media Buying

Tubi hopes emotional context can drive demand for streaming’s long tail

A partnership between FAST provider and DSP Viant extends targeting capabilities for spoiled-for-choice advertisers.

Ad Tech Briefing: A Google breakup sounds ideal, but the realities are much more complicated

The key question are: whether the medicine will be worse than the illness, and is the a case of too little too late?

Nielsen enhances its cross-platform offering with attention metrics from Adelaide

Adelaide’s AU attention metric is being folded into Nielsen ONE to help customers get closer to determining outcomes — the measurement rallying cry of 2025.