Teamwork 2024 Report: This isn't working

Here’s some real talk: Chances are two-thirds of you reading this right now have one eye towards the door. We’re not exaggerating. Frankly, we were a little surprised ourselves. We knew the state of teamwork wasn’t great, but two-thirds? That’s not even a coin flip. And it’s all because of how you’re working.

Sure, we all have tools and teammates and meetings about deadlines and goals. Maybe we have resources to achieve those goals, so we can work together and even feel proud of our accomplishments. Seems simple, right?

Except it’s not. Lately, tools feel overwhelming, multiplying and overlapping. Meetings feel even more pointless. Deadlines are unrealistic. And the resources… what resources?!

With so much meant to make work easier… why is working together still so f***ing hard?

We wanted to find out.

We decided to take a page from Elmo’s book and ask the simple question, “How’s everyone doing?” More specifically, we surveyed 1,000 knowledge workers from all over the US, about teamwork.

So, yeah, two-thirds. Two-thirds of knowledge workers aren’t very happy with how their team works together. Woof.

The cost is real. Nearly 3 in 5 knowledge workers have actively thought about leaving their current positions or have already applied for new jobs due to bad teamwork. That’s over half of your team. If you’re a team of 3? Yikes.

And while they’re trying to make it work, 52% say they've experienced burnout and 45% say crappy teamwork pushed other people out the door. Not fun.

What else did we learn? Well…

Remote work doesn’t magically lead to happier teams. RTO or WFH doesn’t matter — the problem is consistent.
Meetings are getting worse (despite 20% spending over 10 hours a week in them).
Why? Because 1 in 4 knowledge workers aren't prepared to run or participate in them.
Tools and software are just throwing apps at the problem.

Everyone agreed, though, that training — changing how people work together — is where workers wish their companies would invest. That’s what we’re working on constantly here at Mural and we encourage you and your team to do the same.

But before you can fix a problem, you have to understand it fully — no bs, no sugarcoating. So are you ready for the hard truths? Get the full report for a glimpse into the real-real of how teams are feeling and learn what can be done about it.