The Forbs magazine article titled “Unhappy employees outnumber happy ones by two to one worldwide” dealt with the latest survey on international employee satisfaction being conducted by Gallup since late 1990s. It reads:
The vast majority, some 63% (of employees worldwide) are “not engaged,” meaning they are unhappy but not drastically so. In short they’re checked out. They sleepwalk through their days, putting little energy into their work. --- The highest levels of disengagement are in the Middle East and North Africa. --- I would have thought that Israel would have more happy workers but only 6% are engaged, 73% are checked out, and 22% hate their work. http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/10/10/unhappy-employees-outnumber-happy-ones-by-two-to-one-worldwide/
I checked up the definitions of the usage of the words, ‘checked out” in English dictionaries at hand (For instance, Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary gives four different definitions of ‘check out,” i.e., (1) pay the bill and leave, (2) find out information about sth to make sure everything is correct, (3) It’s correct and satisfactory, (4)=checkout.), but was unable to find pertinent one to the expression, “73% workers are checked out.”
What does “being checked out” mean? Are they simply checked out by time card?