Eighty percent of workers say they rarely or never trust leadership to prioritize employees over profit, according to a new report from LiveCareer. The survey, titled “Trust Under Pressure,” found that as the labor market shifts and companies face pressure from artificial intelligence, confidence in executive decision-making has eroded significantly.
Nearly three in four workers (73%) do not trust leadership to be fully honest and transparent during periods of financial difficulty. This skepticism extends to recent restructuring efforts, with 71% believing explanations provided during layoffs were at least somewhat dishonest or lacked necessary context.
Respondents who actually experienced layoffs reported even deeper skepticism. Only 6% of those surveyed said leadership clearly explained the reasons and context for the cuts. The majority instead felt information was obscured, withheld, or outright false, with 36% feeling leadership obscured the reasons and 35% feeling they were not truthful at all.
Financial uncertainty clearly creates a barrier to trust. While 8% of workers believe leadership was fully open and transparent during financial hardship, 40% believe leadership was never transparent and 33% feel they were not fully honest about what was happening.
Workers are also skeptical about how leadership will handle the rise of artificial intelligence. Seventy-one percent believe their employer would downplay the impact of AI on jobs or avoid communicating about it until employees felt the effects themselves. This skepticism is rooted in past experiences with transparency, as 40% believe leadership would downplay or minimize the impact to protect the company’s image, and 31% expect them to say nothing until the changes are already underway.
The concern extends to retraining efforts. Seven in ten workers (70%) believe leadership would be unlikely to invest in retraining or reskilling employees whose roles are affected by AI. Instead, 40% say retraining or reskilling is not likely at all.
“Businesses are often faced with difficult decisions and for employees, the uncertainty surrounding those decisions can be just as unsettling as the outcome itself,” said Jasmine Escalera, career expert for LiveCareer. “Workers need to feel there is a clear, open line of communication so they can understand what is changing, how it may affect them and how to prepare for what comes next.”
When business goals clash with human needs, most employees feel they will lose. Eighty percent of respondents said they rarely or never trust leadership to put employee interests ahead of profit, with 40% claiming profit was always the priority and another 40% saying employees were usually second to profit. The remaining respondents split between situations where profit usually won (14%) and cases where employees always came first (6%).
This disconnect between corporate strategy and employee welfare creates a volatile environment. When leadership hides the full picture, workers are forced to make decisions based on incomplete information, which increases anxiety and reduces loyalty. They cannot plan for their own futures if they do not trust the company to tell them what those futures look like.
Leadership must recognize that transparency is no longer optional. Firms like April Enhances Tax Platform show that modern organizations can implement robust systems to manage complex data, a practice that could help businesses handle sensitive information with greater openness. Similarly, the rollout of new services by INPS demonstrates how structured approaches can support vulnerable populations during transitions. By adopting similar clarity and support structures, corporate leaders might begin to rebuild the fractured trust found in the survey.
