Engagement and job satisfaction remain key for companies that want to achieve high performance. Unfortunately, only 15% of employees worldwide would claim to be satisfied with their company and committed to the work environment in which they work. Therefore, job dissatisfaction is gaining vital spaces within the business framework; becoming a dangerous virus that threatens the success and progress of any organisation.
Job dissatisfaction is the enemy of the employee and the company…
Did you know that 40% of employees do not feel appreciated by their company? This is a tangible reality. Statistics show that a large proportion of workers feel that they are not valued as they deserve to be in their job. This leads them to leave their jobs and look for better job opportunities.
If this problem becomes chronic, it can lead to reduced engagement and productivity, mental health problems and, ultimately, an employee’s resignation. To counteract job dissatisfaction, it is important to understand what causes demotivation at work. Here is some more related information – read on!
What is job dissatisfaction?
Is it a phenomenon that is counterproductive to business success? Certainly, this phenomenon can be compared to a virus that attacks and corrupts the main joints of a corporate body and slowly but surely destroys the environment itself. This prevents objectives from being missed and goals from being lost. Job dissatisfaction, in this way, occurs when an employee does not feel at ease in his or her job; this can be due to various professional and personal reasons such as: lack of promotions, poor management, limited work-life balance, among others.
What causes job dissatisfaction?
Work takes up a significant percentage of one’s life, so people have expectations of what their ideal job should, could or would be like. When these expectations are not met, feelings of disappointment, bitterness and lack of interest arise and lead to such negative situations, in tur
n triggering a host of consequences that will soon set the company on a path full of difficulties and notorious consequences.
Job dissatisfaction can arise for a variety of reasons:
- An unfairly paid employee
- Having an unsupportive or untrustworthy boss.
- Job dissatisfaction can also be triggered by limited professional growth in an organisation.
- Lack of a sense of meaning in the functions performed on a daily basis
- Lack of work-life balance
- Job dissatisfaction is a product of poor management
What happens when workers face a state of job dissatisfaction?
When workers are facing a situation of job dissatisfaction, they are forced to look for job opportunities elsewhere. In addition, they may choose to stay and remain dissatisfied. The latter may be due to fear of change, lack of up-to-date knowledge or because they are unwilling to give up certain benefits (their current salary, health care, retirement plan, etc.). Whatever the case, the virus generated by job dissatisfaction will generate a series of consequences that will undoubtedly unbalance productivity within an organisation, preventing it from meeting its objectives.
As the specialist José L. Mélendez Mélendez, a business coach with more than 20 years of experience, has rightly said:
“He who believes that he can overcome a depressive state, languor, burnt out at work, emotional exhaustion due to his toxic routine, in a solitary way, is a deluded person who digs his own pit with his own thoughts”.
How do employees respond to job dissatisfaction?
Employee responses can be divided into four categories:
- Exit: Job dissatisfaction can produce an exit response which occurs when employees leave an organisation or move to another department to get away from a dissatisfying situation.
- Voice: Employees who fall into the voice category would talk about their negative experience to management and seek recommendations for improvement. This is considered the most constructive approach to job dissatisfaction.
- Loyalty: Those who respond with loyalty will not take any action. They will simply stay in their job; but in the hope that one day change will occur. They will deal with job dissatisfaction quietly.
- Neglect: Workers who respond with neglect perform their job tasks poorly rather than actively seeking to improve their situation. They may often call in sick, submit mediocre work, and fail to respond to messages or emails. One of the most obvious consequences of job dissatisfaction.
How to counteract its effects?
Job dissatisfaction not only decreases job performance and morale, it can also negatively affect the organisation’s bottom line. When employees are disengaged in their work, they are less likely to have the motivation to be productive and deliver quality services.
Studies have shown that there is a relationship between positive employee experience and higher return on assets and sales. Companies ranked in the top 25% for employee experience had almost three times the return on assets and twice the return on sales as companies in the bottom quartile.
There are five key signs of job dissatisfaction. By understanding what these are, employers can better gauge the level of dissatisfaction in their workplace and make the necessary changes – through, for example, quality business coaching that promotes the changes needed to break out of the vicious cycle of business dissatisfaction.
ChVmpion Mind helps you to detect 5 key aspects or signs of job dissatisfaction:
Lack of interest:
Texting friends, browsing social media or simply staring at the ceiling can illustrate job dissatisfaction. One of the first signs of job dissatisfaction, disinterest gets progressively worse over time and can affect job performance.
Procrastination:
Job dissatisfaction can lead employees to procrastinate. In general, people who procrastinate are characterised by:
- Waiting until the last minute to complete a task.
- They make excuses for not working on projects sooner.
- They do not put enough organisation and thought into their work because of the short time they work on it.
Irritability:
Although, every job carries its own set of stressful moments, if employees are constantly irritable, job dissatisfaction worsens. Irritability not only negatively affects one’s own mental health, but also affects the colleagues around them.
Frequent absences:
When people are unhappy with their work, they do not want to fulfil their responsibilities. Therefore, they tend to call in sick. Frequent absences show that an employee is not committed to his job and faces a state of job dissatisfaction.
Lack of effort:
When an employee does not invest all their expertise and talent in their job, it is a sign that they are suffering from job dissatisfaction. People who are satisfied with their work tend to have a greater desire to succeed in their jobs.
