The Invisible Elephant: Why 1 in 4 Employees Feel Sad at Work (and How to Fix It)

Every morning, your employees walk through the door riding on the back of an elephant.

You can’t see it. But it’s there. And it’s controlling everything.

Award winning Vistage speaker Brad Waldron is a leadership and human performance expert with 30 years of experience working with organisations from Microsoft to Warner Bros. He uses this metaphor to explain the invisible emotional weight every person carries into work each day.

“The elephant represents our emotional energy, powerful, instinctive, and capable of extraordinary force,” Brad explains. “The rider represents our thinking mind, the part responsible for judgement, direction, and decision-making. 

“Leadership fails when the rider tries to overpower the elephant, or when the elephant runs without direction. High performance comes when the two are trained, trusted, and working in alignment.”

We caught up with Brad following his Vistage Climb webinar on January 28th to unpack why so many employees are experiencing sadness at work, and hear his framework for addressing the six fundamental human needs that help align the elephant and its rider.

Watch the full session here.

The sadness epidemic that leaders are missing

“When someone comes into work every day, all we see is the Mahout,” Says Brad. “We miss the elephant, the emotion of the person. How they’re feeling and their level of engagement.”

Gallup’s 2025 State of the Workplace report found that workplace engagement in the UK is at a huge low. 

The UK currently ranks 30th out of 38 European countries for employee engagement, with just 10% of employees saying they feel engaged in their roles. That’s a number on the very wrong side of the scale.

But the report reveals an even more alarming statistic: 26% of the UK workforce is experiencing daily sadness.

“Not disengagement. Sadness,” Brad says. “That means one in four people are coming into work, and they’re sad about being there.”

Workplace stress is also high, with 40% of UK workers reporting experiencing a lot of stress the previous day.

As leaders, Brad argues, we have a moral obligation to bring happiness into the workplace. But it’s not just about being nice. It’s about understanding what creates happiness in the first place.

“So many people are switched on 24/7. They’re always reaching for a mobile device. They’re always expected to do things at silly o’clock,” Brad says. “And you know what? I don’t think it’s always the boss’s expectation. I think half the time it’s self-imposed.”

Second, there’s the constant pull of distraction and doom-scrolling.

“What’s the first thing you do in the morning? Probably do a bit of a doom scroll to see what happened overnight. See what’s going on in politics,” Brad says. “You’re always one click away from distraction, and the algorithms are designed to distract you.”

So, what are the conditions for creating happiness in the workplace, and speaking directly to the elephant?

Six needs that drive workplace engagement and happiness

Brad breaks down six fundamental drivers that determine whether someone feels happy and fulfilled at work. 

Get them right, and you create a workplace where people genuinely want to belong.

1. Love and connection: “People look for love and connection,” Brad says. “They want to love what they do, and they want to love who they do it with. We all need that.”

2. Significance: “People need to feel that what they do gets recognised. Being a loyal employee. Doing a job well done. The biggest incentive that you can give someone is just saying thank you.”

3. Certainty: “People need to feel safe in their job. And they certainly like to know what’s expected of them each day, that they’ve got the right tools to do the job, and that you will be consistent in the way that you lead them.”

4. Variety: “Paradoxically, if people get too much consistency, they look for a bit of variety. Variety is the spice of life, after all. It’s getting the balance right.”

5. Growth: “People need to feel that who they are today is better than who they were last year. Because the biggest reason people leave an organisation is for growth opportunities.”

6. Contribution: “As a culture, the British people feel a need to contribute. That’s why people will run for a range of incredible charities and do all these different charitable events, because they want to contribute to something bigger than themselves.”

When these six needs aren’t met, people feel disengaged and sad.

So, what can leaders actually do to improve workplace engagement and happiness?

The one question that changes everything

Brad’s advice is deceptively simple. “Everyone comes in on an elephant every morning. Pay attention to it,” he says.

But there’s one specific question that unlocks everything: What do you want the business to do for you?

“When I ask chief execs that question, they quite often go, ‘I’ve never been asked that before.’ And I always say that’s such a shame,” Brad says. “You deserve to be asked that question. And so do your employees.”

Every leader (everyone with the title ‘manager’ in their job) should be asking their people this question. In fact, Brad advocates for monthly one-to-ones with each team member, dedicated time that’s personal and professional, strategic and tactical.

“It’s so important because it will unlock discretionary effort and energy. Which, in turn, unlocks discretionary gains,” Brad says. “Because when people feel that someone is listening to them, that’s the elephant coming into the room.”

So, are you choosing to talk to the mahout and ignore the elephant? Or are you willing to acknowledge the emotional weight their people carry and create the conditions for that elephant to thrive?

Walking with the Elephant

Brad’s framework isn’t about Pizza Fridays or superficial perks. 

“Walking with the Elephant is really a segue to talk about how we create more magnification of happiness at work,” Brad says. “It’s about creating genuine alignment between what people need and what the organisation provides.”

When organisations get this right, they create a culture where people feel connected, recognised, safe, challenged, and part of something meaningful.

“You create a workplace where people want to belong.”

Watch Brad’s Vistage Climb webinar on-demand here.

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