Disengaged Workers Cost Companies Plenty.

• Position: PRESENTEEISM

Two-thirds of Americans are afflicted with "presenteeism"--a phenomenon in which employees are at the office, but not truly present and engaged in their work. In fact, while many people take only a limited number of sick and vacation days, workers often "phone it in" on a frequent basis at their jobs, and this ends up costing companies 10 times more than absenteeism.

"Disengaged workers aren't just hurting companies' bottom lines--they are simply hurting," says Jack Skeen, founder of Skeen Leadership Group, Cockeysville, Md., and coauthor of The Circle Blueprint: Decoding the Conscious and Unconscious Factors that Determine Your Success. "No one wants to go into work and feel like their role doesn't matter, that their very existence is either rote or meaningless, or both. Those feelings of emptiness can pervade a person's entire life and rob them of joy, meaning, and hope."

Skeen notes that there are three major issues which prevent bosses from effectively leading their employees, and which prevent employees from finding advancement and meaning in their career.

"The first major problem is that people are dense. I don't mean this in a judgmental or pejorative manner. I am simply describing a state of being, like...