Scepticism. Cynicism. False. Fake. Put on. Lip service. These are words that were viral on the social media. People were relating incidents upon incidents of being betrayed. Betrayed in relationships. Betrayed in deals. Betrayed by brands. Betrayed by companies. Betrayed by leaders. Betrayal has traditionally been a common behaviour in societies and workplaces. History is fraught with battles between good and evil.
The evil coming in all shapes and sizes, which is deceptive and misleading many times. What is remarkable about it recently has been the high prevalence rate of the evil beating the good hands down. Some people say this may be due to the exposé provided by social media, where people can now voice everything. True, but there is increasing evidence that the incidence of deception has increased manifold, reaching a new high this year.
The world previously was divided between high trust and low trust societies. The western world with its laws and educated populace had created a culture that was run on rules that were made to facilitate the lives of the ordinary people. The high trust societies have high level of interpersonal and institutional trust.
People believe that public institutions will act honestly and in the public interest. They feel workplace is the best way of putting in their efforts, and they will be rewarded justly for them. They pay high taxes as they trust that their money will go to the improvement of their lives. Germany is an example of a welfare state that has grown economically. Their prowess in auto and engineering sector is legendary.
This belief system then pervades in households and neighbourhoods where people cooperate and have better interpersonal relationships. In contrast to that in low trust societies scepticism and suspicion prevail. People distrust institutions, and they limit their interpersonal relations to close families and friends. Such societies do not trust their institutions. Tax evasion and corruption thrive.
Corporate sectors find the cost of inefficiencies and red-tapism a big challenge. While in the past, countries and companies in developing countries were mostly forced to pay the cost of distrust, the world in general has become a very wary and deceitful place to live and work in.
According to the recently released Worklife Trends report 2026 from Glassdoor, mention of “misalignment” in employee reviews about senior leadership surged 149 percent from 2024 to 2025, while “disconnect” rose 24 percent and “distrust” climbed 26 percent. This is alarming. This needs attention. This needs correction. This rise in distrust is a fall in loyalty, in engagement, in profits and in progress. Let us look at what workers say are the great leadership betrayals:
Betrayal #1— corporate speak and spin- “I just do not like the way our management speaks in twists and tales”. This is a running sentiment in employees. ‘Corporate speak’ is the use of jargon, buzzwords, namedrops that seem very impressive but does not mean much. An example of a leader saying this: “In these turbulent times, we are going to ensure the matrix of ascendancy takes over the axis of descendancy”. Sounds powerful. What does he mean? Does he mean they are now going to grow? Does he mean that the ones who are not performing well will be shown the door? All types of confusing interpretations take place. People wonder. People feel uncomfortable. People feel uncertain. People feel they are not up to the language. People just feel forlorn and left out. Some of them who do understand the language feel upset at the wordy, meaningless speeches that hide the truth. The net result is a negative, distrustful culture where people suspect every move the leader makes.
Solution # 1— Run the ABC test-If leaders are to have a “speak” that gets through to every brain, it is important to make leaders practice the main speeches in actual. The test should be by keeping the basic audience level of understanding in mind, rate it on ABC i.e. accurate, brief and clear. This test is important if the tendency to say a lot that goes over the head has to be controlled. The Leader must have his Communication team get this whetted by the target audience to ensure that message has transparency and clarity.
Betrayal # 2— big talk and small walk - Another reason distrust is on the rise is because leaders overpromise and under-deliver. “They keep on promising that if we achieve our targets the employees will get bonuses and then say sorry it is a crunch time, I tried to convince the board, but they said next year”. This is a common behaviour by managers. This is irresponsible both ways. Not taking the responsibility of being fair to people and trying to shift the blame to upper management. That creates a trust deficit. That creates a discontent. That creates a disengagement. And, all this creates a loss of morale and productivity.
Solution#2— Train your managers on how to conduct difficult conversations. Help them identify how to rephrase the misleading talks. Enable them on how to give bad news in a better manner without sounding artificially hopeful. Make them aware that avoidance is just a fuel to a bigger problem.
Betrayal #3— The Grand disconnect- “They live in their executive suites and hardly come out”. A common complaint by employees. The chasm between those who lead and those who follow has widened in 2025. All the claims of inclusivity have been rhetorics for media consumption. Facts tell another story. This disconnect between employees and leaders shows in how employees talk about their leaders. In Glassdoor study reviews that mention senior leadership or management, the share of reviews that mention “disconnect” has increased 24 percent from 2024 to 2025. Similarly, related terms like misaligned (+149 percent), miscommunication (+25 percent), hypocrisy (+18 percent) and distrust (+26 percent) have all surged in Glassdoor reviews in 2025. The disconnect can be from any of the 3 Us: Unconcerned, Unengaged and Uninvolved. Employees feel he only cares about results and does not care about them. The leader hardly mixes with them informally. The leader does not take the responsibility of failure. This is what creates aloof and indifferent cultures where silos and individualism creep in. When a leader does not connect, he creates an emotional gap that results in a lack of affiliation at the worker level.
Solution#3— The managers who are far removed need to be evaluated on how many and how well are they having their 1 on 1s with employees. They need to have a format for asking personal concern questions as well as professional ones. Their performance assessment needs to have weightage on the quality of their connect to the team.
Distrust is the core of all conflicts, relationships, wars. It is too important to let it be. Remember, the rise in distrust is the fall in quality, equity, and humanity. Countries and companies must take corrective actions before distrust destroys peace and progress.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com