Cancer Council Queensland: 42% Staff Turnover and $4.1 Million Loss
What happens when the people running an organisation and the people working inside it see the workplace differently?
One general workplace survey found a significant gap between employees and leadership. Separately, Cancer Council Queensland reported high staff turnover and a multimillion-dollar financial loss. These are two distinct sets of findings, but together they raise an important question for leaders: are they looking beyond financial results to understand what is happening inside their organisations?
General Workplace Statistic: 54% Say Leadership Lives in a Different World
A Howdy.com survey of more than 1,000 full-time US workers found that 54% believed their leadership lived in a different world from them.
This is a general workplace statistic from surveyed US workers. It is not a finding about Cancer Council Queensland, and it does not establish what the charity’s employees thought about their leadership.
The same survey reported that 72% of respondents said leadership had made a decision they did not understand in the previous year. These findings highlight a potential disconnect between leaders’ decisions and employees’ understanding of them, although the survey does not prove that this disconnect causes financial losses.
Company Case: Cancer Council Queensland’s Staff Turnover and Financial Loss
ABC News reported on Cancer Council Queensland’s financial performance, staff turnover and an ongoing employment lawsuit involving a former research director.
The Reported Financial and Workforce Figures
- 42% staff turnover: reported for the 2025 financial year.
- 31% staff turnover: reported for the following financial year, when the organisation employed 185 people.
- $4.1 million loss: reported for the 2025 financial year.
- $3.24 million profit: the organisation said it achieved this in the following financial year, although its accounts had not yet been released at the time of the ABC report.
ABC News reported that the 2025 loss occurred as fundraising was slightly down while administration, support services and research expenses rose. The organisation also reported increased service delivery and record research investment.
These figures relate specifically to Cancer Council Queensland. They are separate from the Howdy.com survey and should not be combined as though they describe the same population or demonstrate a direct relationship.
The Employment Lawsuit and the Organisation’s Response
ABC News reported that former research director Sandi Hayes alleged bullying and wrongful dismissal in an ongoing Federal Circuit Court lawsuit. Cancer Council Queensland and its CEO, Matt Gardiner, are defending the matter.
The organisation said an investigation did not substantiate allegations against its CEO. The parties’ court filings describe differing accounts of the workplace disputes and the circumstances surrounding Hayes’s dismissal.
The allegations remain contested. The existence of the lawsuit does not establish that the allegations are true, and the ABC report does not establish that the lawsuit or alleged workplace conduct caused the organisation’s financial loss or staff turnover.
What These Findings Mean for Business Leaders
The Howdy.com survey provides a general indication of how some US workers perceive leadership. The ABC News story reports specific financial and workforce outcomes at an Australian charity. Neither source proves that leadership disconnect caused Cancer Council Queensland’s reported results.
However, leaders can use this distinction to ask better questions:
- Do employees understand leadership decisions and organisational priorities?
- Are changes in staff turnover being investigated rather than simply recorded?
- Are employee concerns being reviewed and addressed appropriately?
- Are workforce trends examined alongside financial and operational performance?
Financial results alone rarely explain every underlying workplace issue. Organisations need evidence, employee feedback and proper investigation to understand what is driving their results.
How Moody At Work and MoodyBot Fit Into the Picture
Moody At Work is a work-culture tool that uses anonymous employee check-ins and aggregated reporting to help organisations understand patterns in employees’ experiences. MoodyBot helps leaders examine organisational and departmental patterns, consider potential risks and review possible actions.
These tools can support earlier investigation and more informed decisions. They cannot establish the cause of a financial loss from employee emotions alone, guarantee that turnover will fall or prove that a particular event would have been prevented.
Illustrative Financial Scenarios Based on the Reported $4.1 Million Loss
The following model applies hypothetical mitigation assumptions to the $4.1 million loss reported for Cancer Council Queensland’s 2025 financial year. It illustrates how different assumptions produce different financial amounts. It does not estimate actual MoodyBot performance or establish that the loss was caused by workplace culture.
| Scenario | Hypothetical probability assumption | Assumed share of reported loss mitigated if the scenario applies | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 10% | 1% | $4,100 |
| Medium | 25% | 3% | $30,750 |
| High | 40% | 5% | $82,000 |
How the figures are calculated: The illustrative amounts equal 1%, 3% and 5% of the reported $4.1 million loss. The probability assumptions are hypothetical inputs, not probabilities derived from the news report or validated MoodyBot forecasts. The amounts are not expected savings, confirmed recoverable losses or guaranteed outcomes.
For any organisation, a credible financial assessment would require evidence of the actual causes of losses, the costs associated with those causes, the effectiveness of proposed interventions and the outcomes achieved. Without that evidence, these figures should be treated only as scenario illustrations.
The Leadership Question: Are You Seeing Problems Early Enough?
The general workplace statistic and the Cancer Council Queensland case provide different information. One captures surveyed workers’ perceptions of leadership; the other reports a charity’s financial and workforce results alongside a contested employment dispute.
The practical lesson is not to assume that one caused the other. It is to make employee experiences part of a broader, evidence-based review of workplace culture, retention and business performance.
Moody At Work helps organisations bring those employee experiences into the conversation before decisions are made about what needs further investigation and action.
Learn more about Moody At Work.
References
- Howdy.com: General workplace survey on employee perceptions of leadership, reported September 9, 2026.
- ABC News: Cancer Council Queensland’s reported financial results, staff turnover and ongoing employment lawsuit, October 4, 2026.
Disclaimer: All factual claims are sourced from publicly available reporting. Cancer Council Queensland’s representatives have stated that an investigation did not substantiate allegations against its CEO, and the organisation is defending the lawsuit. MoodyBot projections represent an independent illustrative probability model based on publicly reported information and are not guaranteed outcomes.