Disgruntled Employees in Your Workplace

A disgruntled employee is an employee who is dissatisfied with their job and is prone to ‘grumbling’ about it. The problem with disgruntled employees is that they can pose a huge risk to your company.

In general, disgruntled employees have been known to:

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–        Create irreversible damage to your brand

–        Alienate your most valuable clients and cause very expensive mistakes

–        Leak important company information and participate in internet “bad-mouthing”

–        Stop potential hires from joining the company

–        Cause others around them to be upset and disengaged in their work

–        Be guilty of theft, tardiness, missed deadlines, etc.

In other words, disgruntled employees are harmful to any organization and they do exist. If left unchecked, a disgruntled employee can erode your team collaboration and office morale.

What Does a Disgruntled Employee Need

These employees need better leaders who know how to inspire and motivate them, give them opportunities for development, and treat them with the respect and dignity they each deserve. A third of a person’s life is spent in the workplace, sometimes more. If the environment an employee works in is led by an extraordinary leader who cares about their development, it leaves employees with little room to complain. It is not always about offering more money, better incentives or higher positions.

How to Identify a Disgruntled Employee

Poor performance

The easiest way to identify a disgruntled employee is to review his performance, and if there are drops in it. This is where constant feedback and performance monitoring can come in handy.

Absenteeism or Regularly Late              

When an employee suddenly starts taking a lot of time off, such as increased sick days or just simply not showing up, it’s a red flag that they may not enjoy coming to work and would rather skip going in at all. This usually depicts the lack of interest of the employee towards his work, but either way, do a check-in to see what’s going on.

Bad Attitude at Work

You can easily tell how someone is feeling by the way they converse and go about their daily activities at work. Especially keep a lookout for your employee’s attitudes during meetings and daily tasks feelings towards the job. If there is a negative attitude change without any bounce back, something is definitely wrong.

Team Performance Drops

When an employee is unhappy with their job, they will likely also pull back their support when it comes to teamwork. This disinterest in working with the team is a clear reflection of his disgruntlement.

How to Handle a Disgruntled Employee?

For every bad situation, there is always a way to handle it. In the case of disgruntled employees, some of the common measures you can take to help your employees improve his/her performance are;

Trust and Communicate (employee survey)

No healthy relationship can thrive in a distrustful environment. Managers and leaders need to be fair and take proactive efforts to address any workplace disharmony. Cultivate a culture of honest and transparent communication in the workplace. One easy way is to conduct surveys to receive feedback and inputs of concerns employees potentially have, and address those concerns and make improvements where necessary. Let your employees know they are heard and they will feel more assured when working.

Don’t Play Favourites

Nothing can ensure a disgruntled employee — and a scathing job review — like a boss who plays favorites. Whether it’s overt or implied, employees will pick up on the fact that a manager has a “favorite employee” who can do no wrong. This dynamic will foster resentment and anger, not to mention low morale.

Lead by example. Be sure that rules and policies apply to everyone and that praise and compliments are distributed to all who are deserving

Keep the Atmosphere Positive

Show that you are proud of the team and workplace. Indulge in motivational talks and in building team spirit. Create a positive work culture in the organization. Serious actions must be taken to negate any incidences of office bullying and make it a ‘safe’ place to work. Maybe keeping an anonymous feedback box in the office will help in detecting bullies.

Give Opportunities for Skill Training

Sometimes, an inability to perform the assigned tasks or poor performances can be the cause of employee disgruntlement. Plan training options that could be provided for poor-performing employees or employees who generally want to improve themselves. This will give an opportunity for employees to scale up, and have a fulfilling career, which in turn helps to reduce their dissatisfaction.

During this troubling pandemic where most businesses activities have gone online and especially more international, consider providing your employees with English language training. English language is the most popular operating language of businesses and adopting English can easily give you and your employees an easier time communicating with your customers/clients.

ELSA Speak–an English learning application can easily be your stepping stone to achieve a lesser number of disgruntled employees, by providing your employees with English language training, upscaling them, and giving them a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. Find out more about our ELSA for Corporations plan to see how ELSA can help you.

Remember: Happy employees are key to a successful company. Taking these steps will go a long way toward ensuring happy employees and a happier company