6 in 10 employees are hesitant to speak up at work, says survey
A majority of workers are reluctant to speak up about concerns at work, according to a new survey from executive coaching company Radical Candor.
It highlights a widening “trust gap” between leaders and workers, says Kim Scott, a CEO coach and the co-founder of Radical Candor. The findings are based on a survey of 600 U.S. employees, including HR staff, managers, executives and individual contributors, conducted between Feb. 24 and Mar. 30.
Leaders say that they “want to hear the honest truth about what’s happening,” Scott tells CNBC Make It: 45.8% of executives surveyed said that a lack of honest feedback is their primary concern.
At the same time, employees are afraid to speak up, Scott says. Among individual contributors, 45.2% report that psychological safety and trust is their top workplace concern, and 61.3% say that they often observe people staying silent when they have differing opinions.
“At a moment where so many companies are laying people off, people are afraid to say the truth,” Scott says.
Many managers struggle to give feedback
The most important thing leaders can do to create a culture of psychological safety is “to solicit feedback from their employees and to reward that candor when they get it,” says Scott, who was a leader at tech companies before becoming a CEO coach.
However, many managers lack experience delivering and receiving feedback: Over 70% of managers said in the survey they “rarely” or “never” had opportunities to practice giving feedback before stepping into leadership roles. Untrained managers are also more likely to become defensive or “punish the messenger” when employees come to them with criticism, Scott says.
When managers struggle to give feedback, employees lose out on opportunities for professional development. Over half of individual contributors report that feedback and coaching “rarely” or “never” happen in their organization, according to the survey. Almost 62% of all respondents say that feedback they do get is “too vague” or avoids addressing real issues.
A lack of high-quality feedback could also lead to attrition: A 2024 survey from Textio, an AI-powered HR software platform, found that employees who receive low-quality feedback are 63% more likely to quit within the next 12 months.
Some managers avoid giving honest feedback because they don’t want to hurt their employees’ feelings, but Scott emphasizes that clear, kind feedback is crucial for workers to “succeed in the long run.”
Employees are concerned about AI
For organizations already struggling with trust and communication, AI adoption can add another layer of challenges, Scott says.
All survey respondents ranked “human skills” such as “creating clarity and alignment” (62.1%), “coaching and developing people” (61.5%) and “caring about people and relationships” (43.7%) as more important in the AI era than technical or functional expertise (8%).
However, 57.5% of executives admit that they’re underinvesting in people development, and 76.3% of workers say they’ve noticed the same. Rather than upskilling their employees, some companies are putting 100% of their learning and development budgets toward investing in AI, according to Scott. In her view, that’s a “big mistake.”
Many employees are worried about losing their jobs to AI, Scott says, and in her experience they’re less likely to point out issues with AI or come up with new ways to use the technology “if they think the net result is that they or their friends are going to be fired.”
In the end, Scott says she believes companies that neglect employee development will “fail in the market.”
“Right now, what you need are your people to use their most creative minds to think of whole new ways to work,” she says. “You need to treat employees like assets to be invested in, and you need to treat your managers like assets to be invested in.”
How leaders can invite honest feedback
To get honest feedback from employees, leaders have to prove to them “that it’s safe to say what you really think,” Scott says.
Christine Cruzvergara, the chief education strategist officer at early-career job platform Handshake, told CNBC Make It in 2025 that she asks each of her direct reports five key questions during their first meeting to build trust and rapport:
- What do you want, need, and expect from your supervisor?
- What are your pet peeves?
- How do you like to receive positive feedback? How do you prefer to get constructive feedback? And when you get critical feedback, how do you typically respond?
- How do you like to be recognized when you do good work?
- What is one thing you’re working on as a professional this year, and how can I help you?
Asking these questions demonstrates that you’re receptive to employees’ feedback and invested in in their career success, Cruzvergara said.
According to Scott, it’s beneficial for both leaders and employees to learn how to “give each other criticism in a way that strengthens their relationships.”
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