Job dissatisfaction is rampant?
87% of the global population are disengaged in their job according to a worldwide survey instituted by Gallup. I mean, we don’t even need Gallup to tell us, we just need to look around us at work and ask ” who here is actually doing work that they love”?
Yes the word ‘love’ may sound airy fairy, but that’s where fulfilment comes from, loving what you do. If we don’t love what we do (because that’s not very corporate) we’re called “professional”. Well, there are plenty of “professionals” who dread work, who are disengaged and/or disgruntled dreaming of a better work day, so of course there would be an allergic reaction with the use of the phrase ‘loving your work’ in the corporate sphere…. its’ an oxymoron, it’s oil and water, it doesn’t mix for 87% of the global working population.
And yet, we wonder why we’re so uninspired…….
So, if you were to ask your colleagues ” who is actually doing work that they love”? How many would say yes?
Not many. Better still, would you be able to say yes?
Well, 87% of the world’s population can’t answer yes and they’re in the mode of clocking in and clocking out, numb and uninspired.
Now that’s a real bleak working life – especially considering we spend 12-13 years in school ‘getting educated’, not to mention the additional 3-4 years of undergraduate studies to find what we should do with our lives, so that we can one day earn an income. The end result ……..drum roll please……. a global population Un-happy with the promise of ‘that’ good job.
So for a minimum of 15 years (12 + 3) we got ‘schooled’ for the purpose of being able to find ‘that’ job/ work/career that would make us money, but fulfilled, valued or engaged …….. not so much.
In fact, according to organisational psychologist Dr Michelle Pizer there are specific signs/symptoms that employees show to suggest disengagement and the best thing about these signs/symptoms is that they are sign for us to make a move, a real change, to put a plan in place for an exit strategy.
Because at the end of the day, isn’t our life worth more than being stuck in a ‘boxed’ cubicle for 8 hours a day, merely clicking in and clocking out?
Let’s check out the symptom for job dissatisfaction or in other words…”constantly hanging out for the day to end, the weekend to come or annual leave to arrive”.
Dr Michelle Pizer says some of the indicators that you’re unhappy in your job include:
- You avoid managers, colleagues etc.
- You don’t smile any more.
- You stop speaking up or contributing and you just agree with ‘them’ and follow your instructions.
- You work to rule, such as starting and finishing right on time, or coming in late and leaving early.
- You avoid small talk and only speak when you have to discuss work.
- You miss deadlines, your productivity drops and you don’t seem to care.
- You take more sick days.
- You take a lot of personal calls.
- You take extra-long lunch breaks.
- You use more internet bandwidth.
- You only focus on the short term and are not interested in improvements or planning.
Employers have a moral responsibility of caring that someone is unhappy at your workplace, but it’s a big cost to have unhappy employees, and not just for the employer but for you as well.
When we’re in zombie mode (clocking in, clocking out) at work, there’s no curiosity, no inspiration, no motivation, no belief in our work to grow or contribute and make a difference with our job. This disengagement leads to our potential becoming capped, which leads to our enthusiasm being capped, which leads to our earning potential being capped (since we have little to no interest or belief in our job).
So job disengagement or dissatisfaction does more to harm an individual than an organisation because it’s our belief, self-esteem, money, work ethic, contribution and purpose that suffers or worse….. slowly wanes.
Some say, work isn’t everything, no it isn’t, but it is 2/3 of our life that’s spent at work, wouldn’t it make sense to actually do something that engaged your passion and served your higher purpose that you believed in, instead of playing prisoner in the rat race script in a ‘boxed cubicle’ using up the internet bandwidth’?