Shift-worker sentiment data point to a mid-career morale gap
New workforce sentiment data from HR platform Deputy suggests that North American shift workers’ experiences vary by generation, results that sometimes defy assumptions about employee engagement.
Deputy’s 2026 Shift Pulse Report, which analyzed 731,805 anonymous in-app responses from shift workers, found that millennials and Gen X felt the least positive after their shifts. Millennials came in at 74.52%, followed by Gen X at 75.92%. By comparison, Gen Alpha reported the highest score at 88.88%, while Gen Z came in at 78.42%.
How do shift workers feel when they clock out?
Deputy’s Shift Pulse tool asks workers at the end of a shift to choose one of five responses—Stressed, Frustrated, Okay, Good or Amazing. The company classifies “Good” and “Amazing” responses as positive sentiment and “Stressed” and “Frustrated” responses as negative sentiment. The data closes in on a realtime view of how workers feel immediately after work.
Feeling the least positive are Gen X and millennials, cohorts Deputy characterizes as the “mid-career” core of the workforce. The report points to a “squeeze” on these workers, with family, caregiving and financial commitments weighing on daily work experiences. Deputy also identifies cost-of-living pressure, the need to balance multiple jobs and demand for stable income and flexible schedules as triggers for these generations.
Gen Z presents a contradiction because these workers ranked second in positive sentiment but also had the highest negative-sentiment rate of any generation, at 8.04%. “This combination of high highs and high lows points to a cohort that is emotionally invested in work but also more exposed to its frustrations, frontline customer roles, poly-employment and pressure around hours and pay,” write the report authors.
Read more: Employee engagement sinks as workers struggle with digital overload
Does positivity tie to retention?
Gallup’s U.S. workforce studies found that 61% of Gen Z employees said they were either actively looking for another job or watching for opportunities, compared with 57% of millennials. Taken together with Deputy’s findings, this may hint that feeling good after a shift and feeling committed to an employer are distinct outcomes.
Gallup found that just 31% of U.S. employees were engaged at work in 2025, the same as in 2024 and well below the 2020 high. Engagement dropped the most among Gen Z and millennials. Gen X also saw a drop while engagement among Baby Boomers held steady. Gallup tied the decline to some basic workplace issues. Researchers believe that employees were less clear about what was expected of them, less likely to feel that someone at work cared about them and less likely to see opportunities to learn and grow.
“Actionable drivers are at the heart of this divide,” according to the Deputy report. Positive sentiment is linked to “autonomy, predictability, robust team cohesion and genuine interpersonal connections,” while understaffing, physical exhaustion, low-control work and high emotional demands can weigh on morale.
