The Slippery Slide of Employee Discontent

When a Jet Blue flight attendant grabbed a couple beers and slid down his plane’s emergency chute after a verbal altercation with a customer, US workers cheered. With a Facebook page where each post is garnering about 150 comments, it is clear that Steven Slater strikes a chord with disconnected and disgruntled workers.

In November of 2009, Workforce reported 60 percent of employees plan to quit their firms when the economy improves. An additional 27 percent improved their resumes or were actively networking outside their company. Dick Finnegan's consulting firm found in 2009 that only 10 percent of the executives he surveyed would reject a headhunter's phone call. Even more alarming is that 50 percent of his survey respondents were actively seeking other employment.

Do top Chief Executive Officers care about retention? Not according to Finnegan. Another study his firm undertook with ExecuNet found that only six percent of top CEOs felt that the loss of a top executive in their firm would hurt their personal pay package.

I could quote statistics for another few pages, but I will spare you. Simply said, many employees want to leave their employment but feel stuck. And stuck employees, I find, often "stay and simmer." And simmering often erupts into rage, into a slide down the chute that may not end as well as did Steve Slater's famous exit.

What are employees wrestling with? Here are a few of their concerns.

• No raises, or in many cases, reduced salaries.
• Outdated technology as companies reduce spending on tools that could improve efficiency.
• Less staff and more work.
• A nagging fear that taking a sick day or reporting a workplace injury will result in layoff or termination. Chronic fear suppresses creativity.
• Increased interpersonal conflict on the job as financial stressors and overwork contribute to emotional outbursts, even violence.
• Increased formation of "in" and "out" groups stifle teamwork and impede production and profitability.
• Gossip and rumors trump the token communication from top management.

• Let employees contribute to process improvements. Front-line employees know how to fix problems. Managers should listen more.
• Build a culture that values collective wisdom. Four positive emotions in the collective spirit are appreciation, forgiveness, non-judgment and caring. Too many businesses have lost these precious attributes.
• Build confidence in your employees. You may not be able to guarantee them lifelong employment. You can, however, mentor them and help them develop transferable skills they can use no matter where they work.
• Hold managers accountable for turnover and disciplinary problems. All managers will occasionally have a problem employee, but repeated conflict indicates the manager may require more intervention than do his or her subordinates.