Why thousands of American workers feel trapped in 'job situationships'

Glassdoor’s recent survey frames a growing phenomenon: many employees are staying in positions that no longer satisfy them because leaving is risky or impractical. A large majority of respondents admitted to tolerating undesirable work mainly for stability, while sizable minorities describe their relationship with employers as fraught or ready to end; the numbers point to systemic, not anecdotal, dissatisfaction. The research highlights managerial transitions—particularly millennial managers moving into leadership—as one vector where initially acceptable roles degrade through poor direction and heavier workloads. At the same time, labor-market dynamics that tightened throughout 2025 have reduced hiring activity, limiting lateral mobility and turning voluntary exits into rare options. That mixture of weaker external opportunities and internal management problems helps explain why some employees attempt to reframe or re-rate past employers over time rather than leave. The broader economic backdrop reinforces the pressure: collapsing household savings and weaker consumer activity make financial trade-offs sharper for households evaluating job risk. For employers, the pattern signals a risk to productivity and morale that won’t surface in payroll numbers until it manifests as quiet disengagement or eventual turnover when markets reheat. For policymakers and analysts, the findings suggest a decoupling: headline unemployment can remain low even as job-to-job churn and perceived opportunity shrink. The simplest remedy identified by the researchers—finding another job—is infeasible for many under current conditions, which amplifies frustration and narrows feasible responses to workplace problems. Companies that interpret these signals as a retention problem rather than a market inevitability can address it with clearer roles, better frontline management training and targeted upskilling. Conversely, firms that ignore the combination of weak hiring and managerial breakdown risk accumulating a workforce that is present but not productive. The study therefore offers both a mirror to current worker sentiment and a warning: without structural fixes in hiring activity or management practice, the situationship phenomenon will persist and erode organizational resilience.