15 Reasons Your Employees Don’t Care About Your Business
1. Their pay is not competitive in the market.
2. They don’t feel included.
3. You’ve given them no direction.
4. They’re not feeling motivated.
5. The only thing they believe they get from you is a pay check.
6. You have a restrictive work environment.
7. The person, who hired them, lied about the benefits.
8. They just have bad attitudes.
9. There’s no real fit between them and the business.
10. You have not made them stakeholders.
11. They’re not employees… just seat fillers.
12. It’s not a place to grow in.
13. You’re boring.
14. They’re boring.
15. The job is boring.
There are so many reasons they might not care about your business, and all of the reasons might very well be contributing to why your business is not doing as well as your competitors.
So, what can you do about it?
I've been a seat filler, expendable, and ignored. You're right….all I saw was a paycheck after I woke up and realized I would never go further because I wouldn't play the “game”. Bullsh^tting employees makes for a less than enthusiastic team. Hopefully your post will open up some eyes.
And where is the personal ownership? what about the choice each of us has. The very first choice of “how can I make this job better?” it's not all about the employer to 'give us' and 'make us' and 'grow us'…where is the personal responsibility for ourself to grow? At the end of the day, or more likely – in the beginning of every day – there is a personal choice/decision – how am I going to make my day at work better? how do I get more out of this?
And yes — I am not saying the employer's responsibilities can be ignored — but it is also your responsibility to not let them ignore you.
I'm glad my job is just about the exact opposite of this description : )
Thanks. Yeah, I mean, there are so many different variables that, as you well know, it cannot just be blamed on the employer, but I believe that management has a much better ability to affect employees' opinions of the job/business/etc than the employees do themselves.
Thanks again.
Certainly, there are many contributing factors on the part of the employee… for that reason, I did include a few things like “They just have bad attitudes” and “They're boring.” One person can certainly affect change. However, there are plenty of times when people attempt to do that, and it does not work for any number of reasons: everyone else is happy with the way things are, that person has an unpopular idea, other employees are generally apathetic, etc, etc, etc.
I definitely agree that it is not all about what they can give us, but a work relationship is typically a give-and-take situation, and here, I mainly wanted to highlight why an employee might feel s/he is just giving and not getting what s/he believe s/he should.
Good points though for sure. Thanks for your comment, Sharoni.
I like number 10. Making employees stakeholders is quite a good way to encourage them to work harder. Well, not having the job be boring is a big benefit too.
From what I've seen on http://tatango.tv, I'd guess that's true.
I definitely agree. Just being an employee makes you a stakeholder, but if you don't feel that hard work will be rewarded with recognition, better pay, or whatever else, how large of a stake will you feel you have? Probably not much.
Thanks for commenting, Robby.
Hey Eric – interesting post. However, I disagree with number one. The pay an employee receives doesn't correlate with the emotional engagement they feel. For most people, getting paid a little more won't change the way they feel about their job. Consider it this way: no one heads into a meeting thinking “I'm gonna make $21 for going to this meeting”. And it's even more unlikely that they'd think “If I was getting $23 for going to this meeting, I'd care more about solving the problem.” (OK, maybe consultants think this way. But regular employees don't)
Making sure employees have a clear goal to work towards, the tools they need to make progress, and the knowledge that they'll be held accountable/given credit for the outcome are much more central to employee engagement than the competitiveness of their pay. Your thoughts?
Hey, Jared. I agree with you in most cases, but I have definitely heard people say this (and even said it myself), something like, “Can you believe I just got paid $25 for doing nothing?! What a waste.” I would tend to think of the amount of pay for a certain time period or task relative to what I am able to accomplish, and if I am somehow held back from getting something done, I might think about the futility of my job and that, if my employer is willing to pay me for doing nothing, they probably don't care much… if you see what I'm saying.
Goals and accountability are definitely key, and I think that instilling that in employees is huge, because even if there is wasted time, they are much more likely to put in extra time later (whether paid or unpaid) in order to get things done well… instead of thinking something like, “Well, my 40 hours are up. They paid me for 5 wasted hours in meetings this week, and the job didn't get done because I didn't have time. It's gonna have to wait until next week.”
Anyhoo, there are so many sides that it's difficult to say which is right, but I would say that you can't pay people enough to care, but you can pay them enough to feel guilty.
Thanks for commenting, Jared.
also add: the boss is a ****head
Good list Eric.
lol. Comment of the week.
Right on…Those are definitely the key reasons behind it….
Personally, I prefer the positive post, the other side of this coin. I think employers, like everyone else, are much more receptive to the positive. Good thinking, Eric. Thanks.