THE SILENT EROSION IN ORGANIZATIONS: WHEN DISENGAGEMENT BECOMES AN INVISIBLE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS

Imagine an organization where the air feels heavy with a silence that no one dares to break. There are no outbursts of conflict, nor mass layoffs, but something more subtle: a slow dissolution of what makes work human and meaningful. People arrive on time, perform minimal tasks, yet their eyes avoid the spark of passion. Doing just the basics, they go through the motions without truly engaging — what is now known as quiet quitting. The collective spirit seems fragmented, piece by piece, without fanfare. This is the silent erosion — a phenomenon that does not announce itself with a bang, but corrodes from the inside out, transforming environments of potential into emotional deserts.
As a specialist in human and organizational behavioral development, with over 27 years exploring the intersection of human sciences and leadership, I see this erosion not merely as a productivity problem, but as a collective existential crisis. Why existential? Because it questions the core of our presence in the world of work: what does it mean to “be” in an organization if the “self” has already been lost?
Inspired by thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger, who spoke of authenticity and the anguish of being-in-the-world, I propose an integrated perspective. Silent erosion is not just a symptom of stress; it is the manifestation of profound alienation. The individual, deprived of purpose, opts for survival at the expense of fulfillment.
What few perceive is the impact organizational culture has on employees’ mental health. The question arises: how can silent erosion be modeled as a neuro-existential cycle, where brain chemistry begins to shape behavior? In other words, in toxic environments, over time, people begin to produce cortisol chronically. This cortisol, essential in moments of immediate danger, becomes an enemy in the long term, as it not only inhibits creativity but amplifies an “existential work-related anguish.” The disconnection that emerges is not only emotional; it self-reinforces like a behavioral black hole, hijacking the capacity to act logically and strategically, replaced by impulsive emotional reactions.
It is on this point that I dedicate this article, unfolding, with clarity and depth, this phenomenon. We will rely on scientific evidence, multidisciplinary studies, and real examples, to not only diagnose but also provoke reflection capable of transformation.

Silent Erosion in Action – A DCCO Process
What happens when the future ceases to be a horizon and becomes mere survival?
Recently, I was invited to intervene in a large organization that, at first glance, seemed to be thriving. Revenue was stable, goals were met, and even internal surveys indicated high employee satisfaction. However, there was an issue that could not be ignored: the significant increase in turnover and the growing number of employees taking leave for mental health issues. These signals indicated that something much deeper and invisible was occurring.
When talking with employees and observing the organizational environment, it became clear that there was a growing disconnection between individuals and the company’s purpose. Instead of being a vibrant space of innovation and collaboration, the organization appeared as a silent battlefield, where everyone was merely “doing their job” to meet minimal requirements.
Behind this silence, silent erosion was in full swing. There were no shouts or open conflicts, but people operated in “survival mode.” There was no passion in what they did, no purpose in their actions. What was visible was a functional machine, but soulless. I realized we were facing an invisible existential crisis: the human essence of work was dissolving, leaving behind a mere mechanism of tasks, devoid of meaning.
It was in this scenario that the Organizational Cognitive Behavioral Development (DCCO) process was initiated, with the mission of rescuing not only productivity but also the authenticity and meaning that should be at the heart of the organization. The intervention was designed to break the cycle of existential disconnection, restore trust, and foster an environment where purpose and innovation could flourish again. What was at stake was not merely a performance issue, but a much deeper crisis, involving the lack of work’s meaning in each employee’s life. Rebuilding horizons is not a luxury — it is organizational survival. And it begins when leaders choose to restore humanity in the workplace.

The Neurological Roots of Erosion: When the Brain Enters Survival Mode
To understand how a DCCO process begins to be applied in the face of challenges like this, I often challenge leadership with questions we almost never ask — but which carry the essence of the problem, for example:
• What happens when work ceases to be a space for expansion and becomes merely sterile routine? It’s not just boredom: it is the erosion of creativity.
• And when motivation and innovation disappear? What is lost is not just performance, but the vital energy that drives culture.
• When diversity and transparency cease to exist, the result is a homogeneous environment where fear replaces dialogue and innovation becomes unfeasible.
• And perhaps most crucial of all: what occurs when honest and objective communication is lost? At this point, the organization not only becomes sick — it loses its reason to exist, because it can no longer sustain genuine human bonds.
Questions like these are not rhetorical; they are compasses. They point to blind spots where culture begins to silently collapse. DCCO arises precisely in this territory: rescuing authenticity, clarity, and the courage to rebuild dialogue before erosion becomes collapse.
In this sense, it is essential to understand that toxic environments are not limited to direct conflicts, disrespect, or excessive demands. They also manifest in much subtler — and perhaps more devastating — ways: in the absence of purpose, recognition, appreciation, belonging, career planning, and emotional security, for example. This scenario creates what I call the “Horizon Erosion” — when a person can no longer see the future, and professional life becomes a labyrinth without exit.
In this condition, it is not only performance that declines. Self-esteem, self-love, dreams, ambition, and the desire to create gradually fade, until the individual begins to die inside, even while physically present.
Neuroscience explains why: environments dominated by indifference — where results are the sole purpose — hyperactivate the amygdala, the brain’s threat-detection center. This constant activation triggers a cascade of hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, keeping the body in a defensive state. But in this case, the defense turns inward, becoming a self-deprecating process. What was meant to be protection transforms into corrosion.
And this corrosion is not abstract: it compromises higher cognitive functions such as creativity, working memory, decision-making, and mental flexibility. In other words, a company that suffocates horizons not only kills engagement but atrophies the capacity for innovation that could sustain it in the future.
As I mentioned, repeated exposure to stressful situations activates the brain’s danger response system, particularly the amygdala, which releases cortisol. This hormone, essential in moments of immediate danger, becomes harmful when produced constantly and at high levels. Chronic cortisol not only impairs cognitive functions but also alters perception of work, transforming it from a meaningful task into something mechanical and soulless.
In this scenario, the feedback loop generated by stress overload causes the employee to distance themselves from intrinsic motivation. What was once a source of fulfillment becomes merely a survival strategy. Interactions become reactive, and decisions, instead of being strategic and logical, become impulsive and emotional. This creates a vicious cycle where the disconnection between being and doing at work self-reinforces, creating a behavioral black hole. Anxiety and lack of purpose begin to consume both productivity and well-being.
For example, a study published in Stress in 2019 demonstrated that acute stress impairs performance in creative thinking, particularly affecting the initial phase of the cognitive process where ideas are generated. Here, cortisol acts as a mediator. Elevated cortisol levels reduce mental flexibility, turning innovative minds into minimal repetition machines. We can take this further by integrating this phenomenon with existential philosophy. Sartre, when speaking about “bad faith,” teaches us about self-deception, where we deny our freedom to avoid anguish. In the work context, the disengaged employee enters existential bad faith: they remain in the job but deny their creative agency, limiting themselves to survival.
A recent study, published in Frontiers in Psychology (2022), empirically explored this dynamic, linking creativity to physiological stress response via a biopsychosocial model, showing that perceived threats block authentic self-expression.
What is surprising? My proposition is that this neuro-existential cycle creates a feedback loop where cortisol not only inhibits creativity but amplifies Heideggerian anguish of being “thrown” into the world. The worker finds themselves cast into a meaningless routine, eroding authentic Dasein (being-there). In behavioral psychology, focus is usually on cognitive bias, but rarely integrates existentialism. Here, we see how stress is not just a biological phenomenon, but an ontological one, questioning the essence of the human being at work.

Global Evidence: Studies Revealing the Magnitude of the Problem
We are not dealing with assumptions or hypotheses. There is robust empirical data revealing the magnitude of the problem. The Gallup Global Workplace Report, published in 2024, shows that only 21% of workers worldwide are truly engaged with their jobs. The study indicated a two-percentage-point drop compared to the previous year, resulting in an estimated global productivity loss of USD 438 billion. An even more alarming figure is that 59% of employees are practicing so-called “quiet quitting” — that is, they are simply completing their workday without investing emotionally or intellectually, just fulfilling the obligation. In the United States, this number reaches 50% of the workforce, with the greatest engagement decline observed among people under 35 years old.
But what lies behind these numbers? Gallup attributes this low engagement rate to one central factor: disengaged managers. Only 27% of managers show active involvement with their teams, and data indicate that these managers influence 70% of employee engagement levels. This phenomenon reflects an organizational failure that goes beyond individual actions, reaching the company’s very leadership.
Complementing this evidence, Amy Edmondson’s seminal research, published in Administrative Science Quarterly (1999), reminds us of the importance of psychological safety in teams. In environments where employees feel safe to express ideas, make mistakes, and learn from them, innovation flourishes, and talent retention tends to be significantly higher. Without this safety, the organizational environment becomes marked by silence — a culture of fear and repression where the lack of constructive feedback generates growing disengagement. This “unsaid” reflects deep alienation, as philosophical perspectives on organizational silence suggest, where communication failures create an existential void in the workplace.
Now, I propose a reflection that may challenge some conventional concepts: “quiet quitting” is not, as many think, simply a lack of motivation or laziness. In fact, I see this behavior as an “existential resistance” — an authentic refusal to engage in systems and cultures that deny meaning. This perspective is supported by a 2021 study, published in PMC, on existential values in management in Western and Eastern contexts. The study showed that organizational cultures that neglect purpose and meaning in daily tasks are more likely to experience erosion in employee engagement and commitment.
This phenomenon reveals a clear pattern: when work loses purpose, employees not only withdraw physically, but begin to distance themselves emotionally from their essence within the organizational environment. This process is a clear symptom that silent erosion is underway.

Silent Erosion and the Disappearance of Giants
Observing the recent history of major corporations, we notice a disturbing pattern: the disappearance or loss of relevance of industry giants did not occur solely due to technological or financial failures, but often due to silent cultural erosion. Companies that dominated markets for decades were eventually surpassed by more agile competitors, precisely because they neglected the human and behavioral dimension of their organizations.
1970s: The Peak of Industrial Giants
In the 1970s, companies like General Motors, Kodak, Sears, and Xerox were symbols of innovation and global leadership. However, by focusing exclusively on processes and consolidated operations, they lost sight of the changing environment. Kodak, for example, failed to capitalize on the transition to digital, allowing Canon and Sony to become leaders. The erosion was not abrupt but silent: the internal culture did not encourage adaptation, engagement, or autonomy.
1980s-1990s: Consolidation of Stagnation
In the 1980s and 1990s, corporations such as AT&T, IBM, and Panasonic maintained prominent positions, but their inability to anticipate technological and behavioral changes resulted in stagnation. Meanwhile, agile companies like Nokia and Motorola captured the market, promoting cultures more open to innovation and feedback. The failure was not only technological but organizational: the lack of psychological safety, clear purpose, and recognition of employee engagement undermined corporate resilience.
2000s: The Impact of Digitalization and the Collapse of Traditional Advantages
The early 21st century evidenced how rigid models and inflexible cultures are vulnerable. Blockbuster, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Borders Books lost ground to Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify. The inability to reinvent processes and engage employees led to internal silent erosion, reflected in disconnection, demotivation, and loss of creativity, paralleling the loss of market relevance.
Today: The Need for Purpose and Constant Innovation
In the current landscape, entire sectors face disruptive transformations. Chinese electric mobility companies and digital platforms demonstrate that success depends not only on technology or infrastructure, but on the ability to innovate, engage, and preserve a healthy culture. The crucial difference lies in attention to people: environments that value purpose, diversity, psychological safety, and continuous feedback remain resilient, while disengaged cultures reproduce the phenomenon of quiet quitting.

Integration with DCCO and Human Behavior
This historical analysis highlights a central point: silent erosion occurs not only in corporate structures but also in individual behaviors. Employees who find no meaning or emotional connection to their work enter quiet quitting — performing the minimum, surviving without engagement. Just as companies that neglect culture and engagement lose relevance, individuals who lose connection with their purpose also distance themselves from their potential.
This is exactly where it becomes strategic: the intervention works to rescue authenticity, engagement, and purpose, interrupting erosion cycles and allowing both organizations and people to reconnect with their sense of contribution and innovation. DCCO transforms environments that previously promoted stagnation into spaces where creativity, trust, and collaboration thrive. In other words, looking at the past and present, it becomes clear that sustainable success is rooted in the integration of innovation, organizational culture, and human development. The great fortunes and resilient companies of the future will not only be those with robust resources or advanced technologies, but those that cultivate cultures where people can flourish and innovative ideas can prosper.

Detecting Erosion Before Collapse: Invisible Signals and Preventive Action
Silent erosion in organizations often establishes itself imperceptibly, like an underground current slowly wearing away the deepest structures of corporate culture. But how can we identify this deterioration before it causes irreversible impact? What begins as small signs of disengagement can, over time, transform into a collective existential crisis. Here are some key warning indicators:
1. Hesitation in the Face of Challenges: Fear of Mistakes
When the team hesitates to face new challenges or avoids making important decisions out of fear of punishment or retaliation, it signals that trust has been eroded. The absence of a psychologically safe environment, where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities, generates collective paralysis. Neuroscience confirms: fear of failure activates brain regions associated with stress response, such as the amygdala, increasing cortisol levels and inhibiting creativity. Fear not only restricts team actions but also undermines innovation and growth.
2. Unclear Roles and Ambiguity: Loss of Purpose
Ambiguity in responsibilities and lack of clarity in roles create an environment of uncertainty and disengagement. When employees do not understand the purpose of their actions within the organization’s larger system, they lose focus and sense of belonging. Studies in organizational psychology show that role ambiguity is a leading cause of chronic stress, affecting intrinsic motivation and perceived control. Furthermore, this uncertainty can generate frustration and distrust among team members.
3. Work Overload Without Recognition: Creative Energy Burnout
Work overload without recognition or rewards creates a cycle of exhaustion that depletes the team’s creative energy. When employees feel their efforts go unnoticed, demotivation grows exponentially. This type of chronic pressure not only results in physical and emotional fatigue but can also trigger “impostor syndrome,” where professionals feel increasingly incapable and inadequate to meet organizational challenges. Neuroscience confirms: lack of reward and recognition can reduce dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and motivation, creating a vicious cycle of disengagement.
4. Fragile and Procedural Relationships: Death of Collaboration
In an environment where relationships become merely procedural, without space for genuine empathy and effective collaboration, the collective spirit is lost. Instead of a creative space for idea sharing, the organization becomes an environment of isolated factions, where individuals care more about their personal performance than collective success. When interactions become superficial and overly formal, people feel isolated, directly affecting trust and innovation.
5. Silence: Fear of Naming the Problem
Organizational silence is one of the most underestimated signs of silent erosion. When problems are not openly discussed, or when there is resistance to naming difficult issues, it reflects a culture of fear and distrust. This “unsaid” often reflects existential alienation, where employees prefer to ignore the truth rather than face it, fearing consequences. As we have seen, neuroscience indicates that this type of silence creates an environment of constant tension, where cortisol accumulates, weakening cognitive capacity and making individuals increasingly disconnected from the organizational mission.

The Antidote: Human Leadership and the Existential Rescue
True organizational transformation is not limited to models, frameworks, or metrics. It arises from something much deeper: authentic, conscious, existential leadership, capable of restoring work meaning and nurturing each employee’s self. In times of silent erosion, where the disconnection between being and doing reaches critical levels, leadership must emerge as a philosophical, psychological, and strategic guide, able to tackle technical challenges, but above all to restore purpose, care, and authenticity.

Psychological Safety: Fertile Ground for Growth
Psychological safety is not merely the absence of fear; it is fertile ground where employees can express vulnerabilities, raise questions, and propose divergent ideas without fear of retaliation. When properly cultivated, psychological safety nourishes healthy internal relationships, strengthens mutual trust, and creates conditions for each individual to be recognized as an agent of meaning, not merely a task executor.
True psychological safety, therefore, does not just allow mistakes to exist — it transforms them into opportunities for learning and expanded consciousness. Every piece of feedback, every sincere dialogue, and every reflection on values becomes a strategic nutrient for the self, enabling the individual to reconnect with intrinsic motivation and genuinely engage with the collective purpose.

Existential Leadership: Liberating Questions
Authentic leadership does not impose answers; it fosters questions that liberate and reconnect. Inspired by existentialism, this leadership focuses less on the mere achievement of goals and more on essential questions:
• “What are you really doing here?”
• “How does this resonate with your purpose?”
• “Does the work I perform reflect who I am and who I aspire to become?”
Jean-Paul Sartre reminds us that humans are defined by the choices they make, not by a fixed destiny. In the organizational context, the existential leader acts as a facilitator of conscious choices, enabling each employee to explore, express, and develop their potential authentically, restoring the connection between being and doing.

Neuro-Existential Engagement Framework
To confront silent erosion, I propose a framework integrating science, philosophy, and human psychology: the Neuro-Existential Engagement approach, combining DCCO, neuroscience, and existential reflections to nurture the individual, strengthen culture, and restore meaning in work.
1. Reduction of Cortisol and Chronic Stress
The neurocognitive foundation of the framework involves practices in emotional resilience, mindfulness, safe feedback spaces, and workload management. Reducing chronic cortisol not only protects cognitive functions such as creativity, memory, and decision-making, but also creates space for employees to reconnect with authenticity and purpose.
2. Philosophical Engagement and Existential Reflection
Simultaneously, the existential component encourages structured dialogues on purpose, authenticity, and meaning, inspired by Sartre, Heidegger, and social and behavioral psychology. The goal is for employees to view their work as an extension of their identity, not as a mere mechanical function, restoring intrinsic motivation and vital energy.
3. Reframing Purpose and Healthy Internal Relationships
Leadership acts as a facilitator of healthy internal relationships, where clarity, sincere communication, and strategic recognition of the self form the foundation. Every action gains meaning, every interaction nurtures individual growth, and culture integrates being and doing, reducing apathy, fear, and disengagement.

Impact: Neuroscience and Human Sciences in Organizational Transformation
The power of this approach lies in the integration of neuroscience, social and behavioral psychology, and existential philosophy. The focus shifts from mere productivity to optimizing the human being in their entirety, creating environments where deep engagement, creativity, and innovation naturally flourish.
Reducing stress, restoring purpose, and nurturing internal relationships are not luxuries; they are critical strategies for organizational survival and relevance. Leaders who embrace this perspective can transform not only their teams but the entire organizational culture, turning silent erosion into growth, meaning, and innovation.

Invitation to Deep Reflection
What we have seen so far is clear: silent erosion is not only an organizational challenge but an existential crisis affecting the essence of the human being at work. It is not just about low productivity or high turnover rates, but the loss of purpose and authenticity that should drive human activity. In a world where innovative ideas are at the center of great fortunes and transformative change, a lack of adaptation and reinvention can bring any giant to collapse.
But what can be done about it? The answer is not found in superficial methods or cosmetic changes, but in creating an environment where every employee can truly reconnect with their purpose. Where every action performed at work carries profound meaning, and where mistakes, far from being failures, are seen as opportunities for learning and growth. Where, ultimately, work becomes an existentially rich space rather than a mere mechanical repetition of tasks.
True change requires authentic leadership, philosophical vision, and practices that integrate human behavioral science with a deep understanding of the meaning of work. The Neuro-Existential Engagement model proposes this profound change, where stress is managed neurocognitively, and purpose is restored through philosophical dialogues that invite reflection on the true meaning of our actions in the corporate world.
This is the moment to spark a genuine transformation. Not only in terms of performance, but in the understanding that productivity can only flourish when individuals feel whole in their journey. When leadership not only provides answers but poses questions that resonate in the soul of every employee. When organizations become fertile grounds for innovative ideas, arising from an environment where authenticity and collaboration are not only valued but cultivated with intensity.
Therefore, here is the invitation: as a leader, how can you foster this transformation in your organization? How can you be the key to your team’s existential rescue, and consequently, the engine of true innovation and success? The reflection is yours; the action is our next step.

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