62% of Workers Overloaded as Worker Productivity Flatlines

Workers are doing more with less, and worker productivity is paying the price.

Korn Ferry released its Workforce 2026 Global Insights Report on September 8, 2026, based on a survey of more than 16,000 professionals across 11 global markets, from individual contributors to chief executives. The headline finding: nearly two-thirds of employees (62%) say their workloads have grown significantly heavier over the past two years, and almost half (45%) say they are too busy to deliver meaningful results that contribute to growth.

The numbers describe a workforce stretched past its limit. Forty-four percent of respondents said they feel stretched beyond their capabilities at work. The report frames the problem as one of capacity, not effort: companies are trying to grow by asking the same people to carry more, and the approach is running out of room. Technology alone cannot solve capacity constraints, the firm said, and leaders have to rethink how work gets done. The result is a drag on worker productivity that no amount of new software has fixed.

Doing two jobs for the price of one

Leaner organizations have not made the work lighter. More than three in five employees (61%) now say they perform the responsibilities of more than one role. The report calls this pattern the "two-job job": roles that have been restructured, reduced, or partly replaced by AI, with the remaining work landing on fewer shoulders. When managing AI tools gets layered on top of regular duties, the report says, the job can feel like two jobs instead of one.

Faulty tools add to the pile. An earlier study of workplace technology failures found that broken meeting tech alone drains a median of 12.2 minutes per person every time something goes wrong.

The pressure runs in both directions. Managers are feeling the squeeze from both sides, pressed to deliver outsized results with minimal resources. Two in five organizations (42%) cut management roles over the past year, leaving fewer managers to go around. Fewer than two in five workers (39%) say the shortage of managers leaves them feeling directionless, but the remaining managers are paying for it: 55% of managers who kept their jobs say they are exhausted.

That managerial squeeze matters because managers are one of the few bright spots in the data. Half of the workers surveyed (52%) credited their managers with encouraging experimentation. The report suggests that with more support, managers could be the lever that lets teams innovate instead of just keeping their heads above water.

The AI expectations gap

Artificial intelligence was supposed to lighten the load, but employees and executives are living in different realities. While 79% of CEOs said AI improved efficiency, only 51% of individual contributors said the same. And for workers already weary of the technology, AI has made things worse: 52% of AI-weary employees said using AI has increased their workloads.

The pattern shows up elsewhere. A BambooHR survey found workers lose the equivalent of 20 workdays a year to troubleshooting AI errors and reworking prompts, even as most say they feel confident using the tools.

The gap matters because companies keep investing. Organizations continue to pour money into AI tools while headcount stays flat or shrinks, and workers end up administering the technology on top of everything else. The report concludes that adding more technology without expanding workforce capacity is not the answer. For leaders, the starting point is deciding what work should be done by a human, where AI can take over, and how the two collaborate effectively.

Motivation is slipping

With capacity stretched to the limit, motivation has taken a hit. The share of employees who describe themselves as motivated has dropped from 71% in 2024 to 61% in 2026. Korn Ferry's conclusion is that rebuilding motivation starts with doing less of everything and more of what matters, prioritizing the work that actually contributes to growth.

Rest plays a part too. A survey of 1,000 Singapore office workers found that 97% say poor sleep cuts their productivity, with most estimating their performance drops by more than 20% after a bad night.

What leaders are told to do

The organizations best positioned to grow, according to Korn Ferry, are the ones that redesign roles, rethink how work gets done with AI, and help workers see how their contributions matter. That guidance comes from Roger Philby, the firm's global lead for people strategy and performance.

Korn Ferry Consulting chief executive Lesley Uren argued that growth depends on giving people room to do their best work, saying cost-cutting can create savings but only passion turns a workforce that does the bare minimum into one that goes above and beyond.

Korn Ferry published the findings in its announcement of the Workforce 2026 Global Insights Report, which draws on the firm's annual survey of professionals across industries and seniority levels.