PK | Nov 21, 2008

A working group is a team effort. One wrong paddler can result in losing the race. An efficient cohesive group can take a company to undreamt heights. A discordant note in this orchestra can spoil everything, even ruin. It is surprising how fast a discontented employee can sink a boat.

Worse than having an unhappy employee is the fact of not knowing having one; this is a dangerous bug. If survival of your team is your responsibility, then you need to learn to locate the fuse and fix it before the grenade blows up.

The clues would be there. It is a matter of recognizing them. The first clue is uncharacteristic behaviour. This is something very difficult to hide. Very few people are good enough actors to hide their dissatisfaction if they are feeling it. If they are not happy, they want the world to know and share their grouse. There is self-pity here somewhere. Circumstances and their position may not be right and the employee would hopefully be intelligent enough to know this. So he will bide his time but small subconscious patterns will leak out from under the cloak. For instance, avoiding conversation and taking too long to finish a given job. Knowingly allowing mistakes to creep into the final work and having excuses ready for it, which can be construed as passive un-cooperation.

The company of this person somehow becomes uncomfortable. You have to sense it but it is difficult to describe. Things like forced laughter, missing out in conversation, daydreaming and increased arguing can be pointers. Unfortunately there are many who are made that way in their best self and it is my opinion that they rarely make good employees or partners anyway.

Another clue is dropping-out behaviour. Coming late and leaving early on some pretext or the other; reporting sick more often than would be normal. These are clues that one cannot argue about but should certainly raise some eyebrows.

Once the situation has been recognized the second step is to do something about it. So focus on the problem person. Does the job really interest him? Or is he passing time till he finds another? Losing interest in one’s job is normal. A new employment is a new challenge and comes with rosy pictures of advancement and who knows what. Once on the treadmill, it does not seem this way. Many others are already in the Q. People with overestimated self-worth are the first hit with negative surmises and easily persuade themselves that they are good but the system is bad. Soon they even isolate the ones they think are the source behind their delayed advancement. In this atmosphere they soon become a discordant note to every tune. They need ego boosts. Make them feel important. If this is difficult, I really don’t know what you can do except to ask them to leave.

Regardless of all the above, it would still be a good idea to wonder if you as the employer did not give your disgruntled employee wrong ideas about the job when employing him. Perhaps you dangled a too big a carrot. The employee therefore is quite right in feeling resentful. Your art would be in curing him of this feeling. Try to put in some effort to help him up the ladder otherwise he will only become progressively more resentful and unknowingly or knowingly he will surely hurt the organization sometime sooner or later; most probably sooner rather than later. Positive feedback can do wonders to morale.

An important factor is that the employee may really be right in feeling the way he feels. The job condition can very well dictate negative behaviour. For example take the complaint-box in a service provider company like the MTNL. The employee does not make the rules nor is he responsible for the service but he has to listen to the abuse day in and out. Obviously if his contribution is not appreciated and he is continuously treated as a mere employee of no importance, he is going to be a very unhappy person indeed. And, if you think he cannot hurt the organization in anyway, you have got a thing coming.

Besides all this, there may be other factors at play in his personal life. Like a mismatch in marriage, financial difficulties, illness, pressures in the family and so many other possibilities. Here wisdom dictates, some attention from the manager and wherever possible assistance to overcome difficult moments in life. Just listen to your employee as a friend without being the boss and you will be surprised at what he can tell you. Don’t ask leading questions, just sympathize and do not react. Very few human beings can really cope with everything that life throws at us. So, develop empathy and help your team and they will help the organization to grow in turn.