02/ 13/ 2007
by Jeffrey Moses
Employee dissatisfaction is the forerunner to a number of problems that can be quite serious to a small business. These include employee turnover and the potential for financial abuse, such as theft, check fraud and embezzlement. It's vital for the management of a small company to recognize the signs of employee dissatisfaction before difficulties have the chance to manifest.
Employees almost always send signals of their discontent. The clear and obvious signs of employee dissatisfaction include:
1. Excessive tardiness and absenteeism. When an employee who used to be dependable begins to call in sick or is late to work, it could indicate the onset of personal problems--or job dissatisfaction. The same may be true when an employee begins scheduling flexible outside activities during the workday (such as haircut appointments, car repair, etc.).
2. Lack of enthusiasm indicated by reducing working hours. When an employee who has always stayed at work "until the job is done"--or who has even come in frequently on weekends to finish projects--begins leaving every night at 5 p.m. sharp, job dissatisfaction should be suspected.
3. Decreased quality and quantity of work. When an employee becomes dissatisfied with his job--or with the style of management within a company--the quality of work will reflect it.
4. Complaints by employees against a particular individual within the company. Often the dissatisfaction of disgruntled employees is noticed first by those who work most closely with them.
5. Complaints by an individual employee regarding salary, benefits, working hours, working conditions, etc. Management should never treat such complaints lightly.
6. Increased e-mail usage during work time. Dissatisfied employees often spend extra time cruising the Internet on company time, making outside phone calls, spending excessive time at the watercooler, etc.
7. Displays of anger, frequent arguments with associates or team members or other inappropriate activity. Job dissatisfaction often leads to frustration, which can result in strife with other employees.
Recognizing employee dissatisfaction is only half the battle. When managers realize that an employee is showing signs of dissatisfaction, a meeting should be set up allowing the employee to air grievances. This meeting should be private, between a manager and the employee--and should be specific as to intent. The behavior prompting the meeting should be discussed, with the employee given the opportunity to bring out reasons for dissatisfaction.
Remember, the reason or reasons may be valid--and may affect other employees in addition to the employee being addressed. Reports of discontent give management the opportunity to examine and correct potential problems in the company. For example, can working conditions be improved? Are employee shifts too long? Have benefits fallen behind what is standard in the industry? Has communication between employees and managers broken down? These problems and others can make life hard for employees--and ultimately will hamper productivity. When discontent resulting from any of these areas is reported or noticed, a company should not look the other way, pretending that a problem does not exist. And the dissatisfied employees should not automatically be looked at as "troublemakers." Reports of dissatisfaction among employees should be viewed similarly to customer complaints: as a chance to improve operations.
When the basis of dissatisfaction has been brought out and discussed, management needs to decide how to handle the situation. It may be decided that it's best to dismiss the employee or raise the salary, increase benefits, improve work conditions, etc. In every case, the company will benefit from the early detection of employee dissatisfaction and the prompt addressing of reasons for the dissatisfaction.
