How to Tell Your Boss That You’re Not Engaged at Work
Global estimates indicate that most employees are not fully engaged at work. One of the main drivers of employee disengagement is bad leadership. But leaders are often unaware of this, as it’s very unusual for employees to feel that they can honestly and openly criticize their bosses without paying the consequences. If you want to give your employer a chance before considering other jobs, you need to try to communicate your dissatisfaction. One tactic is to tell your manager that you need help reaching your full potential, or that you need a new challenge. Alternatively, you can say that your role is not the right fit for you. Another option is to say that you find your work exhausting and that you’re looking for help. Granted, these approaches are not guaranteed to work, so it’s always good to have a Plan B in mind before you address the issue head-on.
Many people think of employee engagement as a relatively new idea, but scientists have been studying it for years. William Kahn first introduced the term in 1990, defining it as “the degree of psychological identification employees experience with their job role or work persona.” He noticed that organizations tended to overlook the influence that everyday experiences have on people’s work motivation, focusing instead on their talents, skills, and expertise. Although such qualities are no doubt critical, they are not sufficient to account for the wide range of subjective experiences employees have at work.
For instance, two people with similar skills and backgrounds may be working for the same company, in the same team, and have very similar roles — yet one of them may be totally immersed, enthused, and fulfilled, while the other is fed up, bored, and alienated. As a consequence, the former will perform better, stay longer in the organization, and be a positive influence on other employees, while the latter will underperform, have a negative impact on others, and quit. The difference between these two states (and people) is caused by engagement.
In line, research shows that higher engagement in its various forms tends to predict a range of positive organizational outcomes, such as individual job performance, team effectiveness, and customer satisfaction ratings. Meanwhile, lower engagement has been linked to a range of problematic outcomes, such as increased turnover, absenteeism, and stress. Despite the organizational benefits of engagement, global estimates indicate that most employees are not fully engaged at work — particularly in developed economies, where employees’ expectations are highest. In the U.S. alone, this translates into a productivity loss of about $500 billion a year.
One of the main drivers of employee disengagement is bad leadership, which on its own can be expected to account for as much as 30% of the variability in engagement levels. However, leaders are often unaware of this, not least because upward negative feedback is rare. Indeed, it is very unusual for employees to feel that they can honestly and openly criticize their bosses without paying the consequences. Even telling your boss that you are not engaged makes for uncomfortable conversation, yet the alternative — not saying anything — is arguably worse for everyone.
To address this issue, here are four ways you may want to communicate your dissatisfaction with work, in the hope that your manager may be able (and willing) to help:
To be clear, none of these approaches is guaranteed to work, for a few reasons. First, managers may dismiss them or blame employees for their own problems. Second, even when managers are interested in helping, they may be unable to; some jobs are hard to sell, alternative options may be limited, and the wider organizational context may be toxic or problematic. Third, even if these approaches seem unthreatening and subtle, not least because they acknowledge that engagement is also the employee’s responsibility, some managers may get offended and interpret them as criticism or negative feedback.
If you think your manager may have a negative reaction or may be unwilling or unable to help, don’t go into this conversation without a Plan B in place, whether that’s a job offer already in hand or the understanding that you may need to move on. While people are rarely fired for being disengaged (unless they also perform or behave badly), raising this issue could harm your reputation with your manager. But the risks of staying in a job where you’re disengaged could ultimately be even worse.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the Chief Talent Scientist at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. He’s the author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It). Find him on Twitter: @drtcp or at www.drtomas.com.
Lewis Garrad, a chartered organizational psychologist, is the Growth Markets lead for Mercer | Sirota, an employee research specialist. He is focused on the design and deployment of employee attitude research programs, talent assessment, and performance interventions. Find him on Twitter: @lewisgarrad
How to Tell Your Boss That You’re Not Engaged at Work
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