86% of Indian employees 'struggling or 'suffering', only 14% 'thriving' at work: New Gallup report

India had the second-highest rate of thriving at only 14% in South Asia.

A mere 14% of Indian employees consider themselves "thriving," significantly lower than the global average of 34%, according to the Gallup 2024 State of the Global Workplace report. According to the numbers by the American analytics company, 86% of the employees classified themselves as "struggling" or "suffering".

Classification of Wellbeing

The report, which evaluates employee mental health and wellbeing worldwide, categorised respondents into three wellbeing groups: thriving, struggling, and suffering. Respondents who rated their present life situation positively (7 or higher) and had an optimistic outlook for the next five years were classified as "thriving."

Those with uncertain or negative views of their current life situation, experiencing more daily stress and financial worries, were classified as "struggling." Respondents feeling miserable (rating of 4 or below) with a negative future outlook were categorised as "suffering."

"They are more likely to report that they lack the basics of food and shelter and more likely to have physical pain and a lot of stress, worry, sadness, and anger. They have less access to health insurance and care and more than double the disease burden compared with thriving respondents," noted Gallup.

Regional Insights

The report highlighted that South Asia has the lowest percentage of thriving employees, with only 15% of respondents in the region identifying as thriving, 19 percentage points below the global average. In this region, India has the second-highest rate of thriving at only 14%, just behind Nepal at 22%.

"This trend is true across all countries in the region surveyed, with India reporting the second-highest rate of thriving at only 14%, behind Nepal at 22%," Gallup said in a press release.

Emotional Wellbeing

Regarding daily emotions, 35% of Indian respondents reported experiencing daily anger, the highest in South Asia. However, only 32% of Indian respondents reported daily stress, the lowest in the region compared to 62% in Sri Lanka and 58% in Afghanistan.

Employee Engagement

Despite this, India maintains a high employee engagement rate of 32%, significantly above the global average of 23%. This indicates that while many Indian employees may be struggling or suffering in terms of wellbeing, a substantial portion remains engaged and committed to their work.