One of the most stressful questions on a business owner’s mind often revolves around why certain employees seem to hate their job. You work tirelessly to improve the company, offer benefits and perhaps even offer job security, but all the perks you throw on the table don’t seem to be sticking or changing the mentality of many within your workforce. It’s hard to tell whether negativity is breeding further negativity or whether you’re simply failing to address the deeply rooted problems affecting sectors within your workforce.
The key to figuring out why certain employees might hate their jobs is to look at the individual and the organisation as a whole. There may be cases in which the worker is lazy or simply realises the career isn’t for them, and that’s a relatively simply case to resolve, but there may be situations in which the company is failing the employee in terms of challenging them or simply offering them what they feel they deserve for their work. So, without further ado, here are some of the reasons why your employees might hate their job and some suggestions as to how you can fix these problems.
There’s a lack of communication
The very first thing you should be fixing within your company is communication. If you don’t know your employees, then you’re never going to know why some of them hate their jobs. In fact, what is worse is that you may be overlooking those employees who are very good at disguising their disinterest or disengagement with the company, as that could mean there are far more employees who hate their jobs than you first imagined.
This is why it’s so important to open up a line of communication with employees, as silent sufferers may be among them; not everybody will voice their concerns. Some workers may be too afraid to complain for fear that it’ll make them appear to be an unproductive, inefficient or lazy worker who can’t meet your standards. In reality, it may be you as the employer who is failing to meet their standards by failing to present a big enough challenge. Whatever the case, you need to be fixing the communication gap and getting to the bottom of the issues which are affecting your staff.
There’s no direction for the company
Believe it or not, many of your workers don’t want to clock in, clock out and receive their wage slip at the end of the month. There’s a reason that each of your employees applied to your business, and the majority of people strive towards a business within an industry which excites them or at least builds on their existing skillset. If your company fails to promote goals or projects which could help progress the business as a whole and its workers as individuals, then your employees are going to become disengaged.
There’s no reason for people to push themselves further if there’s no end goal in sight for them. There needs to be a purpose, and your employees need to feel valued. Offering rewards to those workers who sell the most or complete projects the most efficiently is a great way to motivate your workforce and show that they matter.
The environment is uninspiring
The office design could entirely change the way your employees perceive the business. It may seem unrelated to the work at hand, but that’s exactly why redesigning your business’ workplace will lift spirits among the workforce; a modern aesthetic full of warm lighting, comfortable seating and perhaps even some flourishes from companies such as SHS products in the form of sleek steel or glass railings could really add some flavour to what might be a dull, dreary and stressful environment.
People are highly influenced by their surroundings, and considering that we’re driven by our emotions, the level of motivation or productivity on the work floor could be drastically altered simply by giving them a more comfortable, welcoming and aesthetically-pleasing environment in which to work; no more grey cubicles or squeaky, uncomfortable chairs. Your business needs to be thinking about vibrant colours, relaxation zones with pool tables for lunch breaks and an open floor plan which promotes collaboration between colleagues. This will all help your business.
You overwork them
You need to remember that your workers aren’t cogs in a machine. If you treat them as such, then productivity will drop. We as humans need breaks; if you never stopped all day, then you’d be exhausted and work inefficiently too. Your employees are the same, and you need to schedule regular breaks with plenty of time for them to recharge. The pool table in the break room will likely help with that.
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