People change jobs now more than they ever have in the past. This is especially true when you look at a younger demographic. They do it for a variety of reasons, but companies who want their employees to stay need employees to feel valued. Some companies provide perks and benefits expecting them to keep employees enthusiastic. This can work, but taking the alternate approach can be equally effective. Rather than giving employees a reason to stay, explore reasons why employees leave.
Some things are unavoidable for a company. Personal issues, needing to relocate, or parents staying home with their children are a few examples where a company has no control. Other issues are entirely avoidable. Employees who are overworked, burnt out, feel they have no room to grow, or feel overlooked by their employer are likely to want to leave. These people have felt devalued by their employer. Leaving may not be ideal of these employees, but staying in their current climate seems insufferable. These are some common reasons people leave a job feeling devalued.
Others Don’t Make Space for Them
I see this all the time with “modern” companies. No one has a defined workstation and they’re free to work wherever. Many people want a spot to call their own, even if it’s just a cube. However, if the company is up front about this when hiring the employee, then the employee can’t really blame the company.
The space issue isn’t really about desks and offices. It’s more about inclusion. If companies hold a meeting for 20 people and only have 15 seats, that’s an issue. If you’re working in a group where there’s an inner circle and an outer circle, and the inner circle calls all the shots, that’s an issue. Employees shouldn’t have to battle to feel like they belong. Everyone needs to be included and everyone ought to be kept in the loop.
There Aren’t Opportunities to Advance
So long as opportunities to advance exist, employees are going to want to advance. When an employee is seeking an internal promotion, they’re going to leverage their resources. That means talking to co-workers and reaching out to supervisors. When an employee shows initiative and is denied a promotion, it’s going to hurt. How a company handles this is the real factor determining how the employee feels moving forward. A positive approach is to give the employee skills to build and goals to achieve if they want to get promoted in the future. This scenario also had a lot of potential to harbor negative emotions.
When a company is going to gamble on an outside hire, they should have skills suitable for the position. Otherwise the internal candidate will feel their lack of a promotion is a personal attack. It’s especially upsetting when the employee is denied a promotion for reasons he didn’t know about prior to his rejection. This scenario can highlight the employees biggest insecurities within the company. He won’t feel like advancement opportunities don’t exist. He’ll feel like there’s no advancement opportunities for him.
Time Isn’t Valued
Everyone has their own projects, and if employees have the some autonomy to manage their projects then that autonomy should be respected. Sometimes high-priority tasks emerge and trump these projects. This is going to happen from time to time and any rational employee will understand this.
Asking for support on a high-priority project is kind of like calling in sick. If it’s occasional, most people will understand the importance of the project. If this happens frequently, employees will question their supervisor’s ability to manage the team. Employees will then feel like their time isn’t being respected and they’re just covering their supervisor’s procrastination. This continued frustration will decrease motivation and make employees feel like they’ve lost their independence.
Hierarchy Prevails
As someone climbs the career ladder, their responsibilities are going to mature as well. This is natural, and they may even earn the privileged of becoming a supervisor. Of course, bosses and managers are going to have some control over the work of lower-level employees. This is natural and expected, but supervisors should never forget the importance of their employee’s roles.
Managers often have a difficult path to navigate. The success of their supervised employees is a reflection of their success in their roles as supervisors. Sometimes a supervisor will try to stroke their superiors’ egos. Everything they do is a tactic to please their superiors and this often trivializes the work of lower-level employees. This emphasis on pleasing superiors is a way to ensure lower-level employees feel devalued. They will feel like their work is not worthy of recognition and unimportant in the organization’s operation.
This can also present itself as a senior employee gloating in the perks of a promotion. This may be an employee who is unwilling to help others because certain tasks are beneath him. It could be someone who is unwilling to share resources because he earned his resources due to his advanced role. Regardless of the rationale, someone who uses a senior position to justify his inflexibility is going to support a toxic hierarchy that makes other employees feel unwelcome.
Feedback is Limited
If you’ve ever done something incorrectly for a long period of time without being corrected, you know how frustrating it can be. When employees aren’t given adequate feedback, they’re bound to make mistakes. These mistakes will turn into habits and result in continued frustrations. While some supervisors address mistakes, their “feedback” is merely criticism without a solution. It’s important for employees to have guidance and feel their supervisor is looking out for their best interests. Feedback should be specific, identifying behaviors and proposing solutions to improve those behaviors. This type of advice won’t be viewed as criticism. It will allow employees to grow. Without proper feedback employees are going to feel like they’re not developing and can result in a less-than-optimal performance.
Lack of feedback is a problem when the employee is uncomfortable giving feedback to their supervisor. This employee will listen to their supervisor provide information in a less-than-optimal way. When a supervisor and provide feed back, but the supervisee cannot, this reinforces the worst parts of the company’s hierarchy. It can be a challenge, but companies should work to encourage all employees to provide feedback. Not only will all employees feel more comfortable in their roles, but they will also be continuously growing in their positions.
Extra Work is Expected and Not Compenstated
If an employee wants to get promoted, she’ll go above and beyond her assigned roles. This should be viewed as exceptional dedication, perhaps even an ideal employee. While this employee is doing more than she needs to, many companies expect employees to do significantly more than what’s written in the job description. When responsibilities change without the knowledge of the impacted employee, they’re likely to feel as though they’re not important and have no say in their own job. Employees applied for a specific role, and any changes to that role should be discussed before implemented.
Sometimes an employee will leave a role and there’s extra work because of the open position. The employees picking up the slack are likely to feel extra stress and challenge in their daily tasks. Even though it’s necessary for all work to be completed, employees are going feel like they’re forced into doing extra work. When the team is consistently short staffed, current employees will be consistently overworked. This makes them feel like other opportunities are going to give them better compensation for their work.
Stress is Part of the Culture
Every organization is going to have busier periods, but when employees are constantly stress they’re going to feel overlooked. This may be unavoidable but many forms of stress are entirely avoidable. A company where positions are always vacant, time is poorly managed, and supervisors don’t listen to employees will turn into a breeding ground for stress. Companies should strive to give employees balance. While work is expected, having some downtime will maximize productivity.
One of the best ways to destress is using vacation time. When employees are encouraged to take vacation, they will, and they will feel more refreshed because of it. Employees shouldn’t feel bad for using vacation time. They also should be penalized for taking it. This mean companies should try to minimize the work piling up in their absence. I’ve heard of people who wouldn’t take vacation because they’d return to hundred of e-mails and stacks of documents. This is not the proper way to handle vacation time, and it is not beneficial to the employee.
Conclusion
People want to feel valued in their company. Some stress is unavoidable, but the good should outweigh the bad. When every day is met with dread and frustrations, employees will wonder why they stay in their current position. These employees will feel like their work is not amounting to anything other than increased challenges and trouble.
Employees also want to work with good people, the ones who value their wellbeing. Open feedback and communication can contribute to this, but the will only happen if the company allows it. Companies that put results before employees won’t be likely to retain good people. They’ll also find employees burning out and not maximizing their output.
The ideal scenario is for an employee to feel valued. These employees want to develop their skills and be a part of their company. By avoiding devaluing factors, companies will create an environment where employees will want to grow and be a part of company development. I have seen companies lose a lot of great people for the wrong reasons, and this could have been avoided. Taking an active approach to developing a healthy work culture will keep employees feeling motivated and valued.
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