Leadership Strategies Tackling Job Hugging and Disengagement

Watch this episode of the Life Fulfilled Podcast on YouTube

Host Bernie Borges breaks down the risks of job hugging; when employees stick around not out of engagement but because leaving feels riskier than staying. He highlights how this quiet disengagement carries costs that don’t show up in retention metrics but can erode performance across the board. This episode also explores how leaders can recognize the signs, audit their teams, and invest in leadership strategies that prioritize fulfillment as a driver of sustainable results.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

1️⃣ Why Disengagement Is More Dangerous than Attrition
Many “job huggers” aren’t quitting or causing visible problems, but they’re also not innovating, driving outcomes, or bringing a winning mindset to work. As Bernie Borges points out, slower execution and missed goals are the warning signs you won’t catch in your standard retention metrics.

2️⃣ Job Hugging: The Hidden Behavior Costing You Growth
Employees who stay out of risk aversion—not engagement—appear loyal but lead to “silent erosion” of business performance. You’re paying full salaries for partial output, and this cost hides inside your metrics.

3️⃣ Outdated Leadership Systems Need a Refresh
Old leadership models optimized for control and compliance simply don’t cut it anymore. Fulfillment-centric leadership, as taught by Bernie Borges, treats fulfillment as the backbone of sustainable performance—fueling energy, ownership, and results.

Main Takeaway:
Disengagement rarely shows up in dashboards, but it’s quietly draining momentum, profit, and morale. The antidote? Shifting to a fulfillment-based leadership operating system that supports employees’ health, career, relationships, and legacy for measurable business impact.

Try the Employee Engagement Fund ROI Calculator. You’ll get a clear view of what turnover is really costing your business, and how much you could save by investing in employee engagement and retention strategies.

Connect with Bernie Borges
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Get in touch with Bernie to explore:
Hiring him as a keynote speaker at your next event.
A tailored presentation or workshop on Fulfillment Centric Leadership™.

Music attribution:
Old Bossa Twin Musicom
Suno

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Transcript

Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Hey, this episode's on YouTube too. Watch it now at Life Fulfilled Pod. The link is in the show. Notes here's why Disengagement is More Dangerous than Attrition Job huggers aren't loud. They're not complaining. They're not causing problems. They're not quitting. But they're also not driving innovation.

Bernie Borges [00:00:23]:
They're not pushing for better outcomes. They they're not owning results the way they once did. And they're not coming to work with a winning mindset. Welcome to the Life Fulfilled podcast. Because you know life's too short not to experience fulfillment, have you ever caught yourself thinking, wait, shouldn't life feel a little fuller than this? That ache for real soul deep fulfillment is exactly why this show exists. I'm Bernie Borges, your host and the creator of the Fulfillment Centric Leadership Framework. Every Monday, I show up with practical no fluff conversations around the five pillars that make or break a rich life, no matter your age or stage. A more fulfilled life is on the table on the Life Fulfilled podcast, so be sure to press that Follow or subscribe button.

Bernie Borges [00:01:17]:
Foreign if your employee turnover is low right now, you might think your leadership system is working well. In the next few minutes, I'm going to show you why that assumption could be quietly costing you productivity, margin and future growth and what to replace it with. And if you stay with me, you'll learn three things why disengagement is more dangerous than attrition, how a hidden behavior called job hugging hides inside your metrics, and how growth stage leaders are replacing outdated leadership systems with one design for sustainable performance. Now, let me be clear. This isn't theory. This is about protecting performance before the damage shows up on your dashboard. Let's start with the hidden risk. Most executives are job hugging.

Bernie Borges [00:02:17]:
Job hugging happens when people stay in their roles not because they're engaged, but because leaving feels riskier than staying. Right now, in many sectors, the job market is soft, voluntary turnover is down, and on paper, that looks like stability. But under the surface, disengagement is quietly growing, and from a business standpoint, that's dangerous. You already know that turnover is expensive, often 100 to 200% of salary to replace an employee. But job hugging creates a different kind of cost. You're paying full salary for partial output, and that cost doesn't show up in your retention reports. Here's why disengagement is more dangerous than attrition. Job huggers aren't loud.

Bernie Borges [00:03:13]:
They're not complaining, they're not causing problems, they're not quitting but they're also not driving innovation. They're not pushing for better outcomes, they're not owning results the way they once did. And they're not coming to work with a winning mindset. Instead, disengagement shows up quietly Slower execution, weaker customer experience, declining team energy, missed stretch goals, margin pressure, Client non renewals. You won't see job hugging in your dashboards, but you will find feel it in missed KPIs, sluggish progress, lost momentum or client non renewals this is silent erosion of business performance and this is where leadership comes in Is employee turnover quietly draining your bottom line? I've been there. I learned the hard way that the cost of replacing just one employee can be as high as two times their annual salary, especially in leadership or technical roles. And if your turnover rate is above your industry's average, the financial impact is even worse. That's why we created the Employee Engagement Fund ROI calculator.

Bernie Borges [00:04:38]:
It's free and in about one minute, by answering just a few questions, you'll get a clear view of what turnover is really costing your business and how much you could save by investing in employee engagement and retention strategies. You'll also get a free cheat sheet with turnover benchmarks by industry and replacement cost multipliers by job level to validate your numbers and know where you stand among your competitors. The ROI calculator is available at fulfilledatworkacademy.com and it's linked up in the show Notes for this episode. If you want to build a strong case for investing in culture, engagement and retention, this is where you start. Besides, you really should know the cost of turnover in your business and how you can improve profit when you improve employee engagement. Try the Employee Engagement Fund ROI calculator Today. Leadership is the vehicle. Think of it like a high performance car.

Bernie Borges [00:05:42]:
You want speed, you want control, you want results. But a car with an outdated engine won't get you there, no matter how skilled the driver is. Many leadership systems today are like that. They were designed for a different workforce, a different era, and different expectations. They still run, but they don't perform. Here's why this is a leadership system problem. This isn't about motivation. And it's not just an HR issue.

Bernie Borges [00:06:16]:
It's a leadership system issue. You see, outdated leadership systems optimize for control and compliance, but they fail to sustain energy, ownership and commitment. That's where fulfillment comes in. Not as a perk, not as a wellness initiative, but as performance infrastructure. Fulfilled leadership is the performance engine. Fulfilled leadership is a structured approach that treats fulfillment as a systemic driver of performance, not an emotional bonus. When leaders understand what allows people to thrive and remove friction in those areas, engagement becomes the byproduct. The framework that I teach is built around five real world pillars.

Bernie Borges [00:07:11]:
Health, fitness, career, relationships and legacy. Not as therapy, not as counseling, and not as a personal coach either, but as inputs to sustainable performance in the workplace. When leaders support people in these areas appropriately and professionally, energy returns, ownership increases and productivity follows. That's why I describe this as a fulfillment based operating system. It's the engine underneath your strategy and the data supports this. Highly engaged teams deliver 23% higher profitability, 14 to 18% higher productivity, 78% lower absenteeism. According to Gallup's long standing research on this, engagement is one of the highest yield investments a business can make, but only if leadership is designed to produce it. You see, this is not just HR's problem.

Bernie Borges [00:08:17]:
If you own performance metrics, this belongs with you. Because engagement directly affects revenue, labor efficiency, customer retention, capacity, planning and execution speed. Now, you don't need to run engagement programs, but you do need to fund the right leadership system, measure the right outcomes and hold leaders accountable for human performance, not just results. Here are three actions that you can take this quarter. Three practical steps. First, audit your engagement reality. Go beyond retention. Look at productivity by team, absenteeism trends, internal mobility, vacancy duration and one on one meeting frequency.

Bernie Borges [00:09:09]:
Second, run a job hugging risk assessment. Are your highest retention teams also your highest performing teams? If not, that's a signal. Third, invest in leadership development that drives business results. Not inspiration. Not fluff, not theory. Systems that measurably improve performance, loyalty and execution. You can't reach your destination without the right vehicle. If engagement is the performance that you need, fulfilled leadership is the traction.

Bernie Borges [00:09:49]:
Without it strategies slip with it, results accelerate sustainably and with loyalty built in. If this resonates, my ROI calculator is a good place to start. It's linked up below. And if you're ready to lead with traction, not just tactics, reach out. I'm Bernie Borges, CEO of Fulfilled at Work Academy. Remember, fulfillment isn't a perk. Fulfillment is a performance strategy. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end.

Bernie Borges [00:10:24]:
The Fulfill the Work Academy equips you to build teams that feel valued, aligned and motivated to do their best work before disengagement or turnover shows up. Through our fulfillment centric leadership training workshops, coaching and masterminds, we help organizations scale a culture of head and heart leadership so that leaders connect more deeply with their people and lead higher performing teams. Learn more@fulfilledatworkacademy.com because fulfillment isn't just a feeling, it's a performance strategy. Hey, I'm Bernie Borges, your fulfillment architect, and I'll see you in the next episode of the Life Fulfilled podcast.