Disengaged Employees Can Kill Your Company

Toxic, belligerent, nasty, rude, and mean employees can kill your company!

Employee engagement drives performance in organizations.  It is a proven fact!  Even without the research, common sense says that if you’re pretty sharp, committed and involved — and these attitudes are supported, respected, encouraged and rewarded — you’re likely to do a better job.

The words “supported, respected, encouraged and rewarded” are what’s important here.  Who’s job is it to treat people this way?  Everybody’s job!  When entire organizations embrace this type of behavior as standards, great things happen with employee performance.

Clearly, failing to support, encourage, respect and reward people carries an enormous cost.  Sometimes this failure is a sin of omission but depressingly often it is a sin of commission.  Many managers consciously treat people disrespectfully, belittle their accomplishments and make every effort to “keep them in their place”.  This cannot be tolerated in an organization!

We know what most people want: they want to feel valued.  They want their contribution to be recognized.  One of the consequences of not feeling valued or not being recognized is that people withdraw and do less and less.  This has a major impact on an organization, lowering morale and productivity, draining resources, and blocking performance.  It is also infectious — negative behavior has a multiplier effect on the behavior of others.  And in turn, the bottom line is impacted.

Actively Disengaged Employee

Here are some signs that someone’s disengaged at work

•        Try to avoid being held solely responsible for things.
•        Avoid firm time commitments for getting things done.
•        Keep a low profile on issues.
•        Distance themselves from others’ failures.
•        Avoid sharing information with others.
•        Cut themselves off from people at times.

People don’t behave like this for no reason — it’s a reaction to the way their jobs are structured and, more importantly, the way they are being managed.  Take control of employee engagement by nurturing your people.  Create standards of excellence in your organization that help people be their very best!