Are your employees content?
The workplace can be a difficult environment to navigate. From interpersonal relationships with employees, to dealing with upper management, day to day work can range from amazing to extremely stressful. Persistently stressful situations can lead a good employee to feel like they need a way out. A new study by Taskworld examines five signs that your employees may be unhappy with their coworkers or their overall work environment.
One of the first signs your employees may not be completely happy is a sense of decreased professionalism. Typically, if employees are relatively happy and being treated with respect, they will be more likely to return that respect, when they do not, a problem may be brewing.
If employees stop being respectful of management, or stop caring about providing good customer service, it can be a sign of a larger problem. This, of course, could just be an isolated incident of one individual having a bad day, but if you find multiple employees exhibiting the same type of behavior, you may want to re-evaluate and reassess.
And then, productivity takes a hit
The next instance is higher rates of calling in ill. When the work environment become less than pleasant, some people may begin to feel like people do not like them, or do not want them to come to work, so they will call in to avoid the stress. The bottomline here is if employees would rather go without money than come to work, there is a problem.
Again, this could be a personality conflict among select individuals, but if multiple employees are doing it, reassess. Also, decreased work production is a sign your employees may not be happy. If employees have stopped, or slowed, in producing work, or their quality of work has changed, they may not be happy. If they have stopped caring about deadlines and work quality, this could be a sign that something is amiss.
Also, if there is a general lack of cooperation, your employees may be unhappy. An unwillingness to do favors, like come in early, take on additional work, or help out another employee, may signal that they are not happy. Again, isolated incidents of this may signal a bad day, or a dislike of one employee for another, but if there are multiple instances, you may need to examine further.
Unhappiness means employees don’t show up
Much like calling in sick, unhappy employees are most likely to to start asking for days off. While this could be due to a multitude of reasons, remember: most hiring is done during the week, so unhappy employees could be seeking another job. This could be indicative of a feeling of being overworked or under appreciated as well.
Most long-term employees will have off days. Most of us have called in sick, when we were not actually ill; sometimes we all need a break. There is nothing wrong with taking a “me day,” but if one day turns into several, or if you find multiple employees exhibiting these behaviors, you may need to reassess your management team and skills.
