The manager
Manager engagement fell from 30% to 27% in one year. Their teams suffer 60% more stress. Micromanagement increases turnover by 43%.
01 — The diagnosis
It's not a lack of attitude. It's a broken system.
Suffering at work is not an anecdote. It is a documented, measured and economically quantified pattern affecting most organisations.
The world
21%
of the world's employees are truly engaged. 62% do the bare minimum.
Gallup 2025
41%
report experiencing "a lot of stress" at work every day.
Gallup 2025
$438B
in productivity lost in 2024 alone due to low engagement.
Gallup 2025
10.4x
more predictive is toxic culture than pay in explaining why people leave.
MIT Sloan Management Review
8x
more likely to burn out when exposed to toxic behaviour. And 6x more likely to leave within 3-6 months.
McKinsey Health Institute
62%
would take a pay cut to have an emotionally intelligent boss.
2026 study
Spain and the tech sector
At the bottom of Europe. And the tech promise, broken.
10%
engagement in Spain. European average: 13%. Global average: 21%.
Gallup – Spain 2025
40%
link their anxiety or depression to work (29% in Europe).
EU-OSHA 2025
24.1%
turnover in Spain's tech sector in 2025 (19.2% in 2024).
Xataka 2025
7.1%
absenteeism at the end of 2025, close to all-time highs.
Randstad Research
68%
of tech professionals reported burnout symptoms in 2024 (49% three years earlier).
Circles.com 2025
+155%
tech layoffs in Spain in 2025. AI-related layoffs grew 759%.
El Ecosistema Startup
The root causes
A chain reaction.
Toxic culture
Across 34 million profiles, toxic culture predicts attrition 10.4 times more than pay.
No autonomy
Up to 40% less satisfaction. Every decision escalates upwards and creates bottlenecks.
No purpose
Only 18% are very satisfied with their work: the "Great Disconnect".
Always on
85% attribute part of their stress to Slack, Teams and email. 79% in Spain can't switch off.
Financial pressure
55% of the global workforce lives under financial pressure. Trust and honesty collapse.
The cost of doing nothing is vastly greater than the cost of transforming.
The payoff of transforming
The economic dividend of excellence.
Cultural and operational transformation is not a cost, it is the most reliable results multiplier on the market.
3.68x
cumulative stock market return of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For versus the market.
Great Place to Work / FTSE Russell · 25 years
+23%
net profitability in organisations with engaged teams.
Gallup · 100,000+ business units
-81%
absenteeism and -51% unwanted turnover in high-trust cultures.
Gallup 2025
+10%
customer loyalty and retention.
Gallup