A growing number of people are indifferent about their job. They don't love it—or even like it—but they don't hate it enough to leave. This global phenomenon is called “disengagement.” These employees are “essentially ‘checked out,’…putting time—but not energy or passion—into their work,” according to Gallup Management Journal. A 2005 study by the Gallup Organization found engagement levels in Japan are among the lowest of the countries the company has surveyed. Of the 1,000 respondents, 67 percent said they were “not engaged.” In the United States, that number hit 59 percent.
A disengaged worker is “an employee who does not give his or her best effort at work,” says Leigh Branham, founder and principal of Keeping the People Inc., a talent management consulting firm in Overland Park, Kan., USA.
He's also the author of The Seven Hidden Reasons Employees Leave [AMA-COM Books, 2005]—and all of the reasons he outlines can be blamed on managers.
“The No.1 cause has to be not feeling valued or important,” Mr. Branham says. Employees also become disengaged when they're not thanked for their contributions, trusted to use their best judgment, or asked for their input or ideas.
So why don't more managers bother to simply recognize employees and ask for their input? “Because they are so focused on looking good to those above them or too busy doing the job that they spend no time managing people, which means they should never have been managers in the first place,” he says.
Although it's easy to blame management, it won't help. Unless your company realizes the problem of disengagement and addresses it, the solution will have to come from you. The first step: “Let go of blaming and being a victim and start to master your situation by trying to improve things through a conversation with your manager or someone else who cares,” Mr. Branham says.
Set aside some time to reflect on what has made you happy on this job and try to determine what has changed to make you feel disconnected. If you can't recall ever being satisfied, you could be in the wrong job—another cause of disengagement Mr. Branham attributes to management. Ask for additional responsibilities or a new assignment if you do not feel challenged. Feeling overworked? It might be time to request more staff, time or money. Consider a transfer withing the organization if the risks are too high to change your current situation and you want to remain with your current employer. If not, start a job search. In either case, the goal is to find a manager that can fulfill what the Gallup Management Journal calls “universal human needs: support, recognition, belonging and growth.”
In their book First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently [Simon & Schuster, 1999], leadership consultants Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman cite an employee's relationship with his or her immediate superior as having the largest influence on job satisfaction.
During your job search, use your personal network to locate and interview subordinates to determine who can tell you how the manager really operates. Look for a team that's passionate about its work, has low turnover and can cite instances of getting praise and recognition for accomplishments—all signs of a good manager and an engaging workplace. PM
John Sullivan, PMP, is a project manager and writer in Dayton, Ohio, USA.