I recently was talking to a woman who told me that she loved what she does at work, but is so unhappy because the management is so poor. She said that it is not only her that is unhappy, but most of the crew she works with feels the same. At meetings the crew has tried to bring up some of the issues, but they were not received well. They do not want to “rock the boat” because they all need their jobs, so they feel that they just need to put up with the way things are.
What a sad situation, it seems as though this manager does not know “how to tell when an employee is unhappy”. Since I talked to her I and have been thinking about this from two points of view. One, from the managers point of view because an unhappy employee will more than likely be less productive and the other from the business owners point of view because usually they have less connections with the employee and many times are looking at the situation from strictly the bottom line.
There are more reasons than one could count as to why an employee is unhappy, so I thought it be best to just stick with how do you recognize the problem and what can you do to take care of it. Since I work in the medical world, I have chosen to look for the symptoms that the employee has. I cannot actually see what is going on inside of them, but with a good eye (and sometimes it doesn’t even take that) I certainly can look for outward symptoms of what might be the disease of “unhappiness”.
Not all unhappiness is caused by situations at work, and it is the employee’s personal life that is causing the illness. None the less, when it affects the employees quality of work it needs to be addressed.
I have come up with three pretty easy “unhappy employee symptoms” to spot and what I would do about them. I would like to get input for any other symptoms that other managers or business owners may have encountered and what solutions you have prescribed to successfully remedy the problem.
Checking out – When you see your employee physically there but they are really not engaged with what they are doing and whom they are doing it with they may be checked out. You ask them a question and get the proverbial “deer in the headlight look”, when they really should be able to give you an answer. When people check out of a situation it is usually because something is going on that is consuming their thoughts when their mind should be on work. Time to check it out so you can get them to check back in.
Lack of team effort – “All for one and one for all” but when you see a normally engaged team player starting to play solo it is time to for a locker room chat to find out what is going on and what can be done to get that team spirit back in your player. A team can fall apart pretty quickly if “soloist” is allowed to continue playing on their own.
Negativity – When we are unhappy we have a hard time finding good in anything and our attitudes reflect it. When you start to hear an employee who normally has a pretty balanced attitude complain or speak negatively more than normal about everyday matters pay attention. Someone is having problems and they are pouring over into their work life, if they are not caused by it. Negativity is an infectious disease and can pass from one employee to another very quickly.
Employees are a businesses most valuable asset, keeping them healthy and strong is a worthwhile investment.
I am sure there are dozens of other symptoms out there, what have your encountered?
“Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.” ~ Tony Hsieh
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