From Job Frustration to Responsibility

Over the past weeks, I have had some informal discussions with people (in Germany) about their job situation and what I heard was a deep dissatisfaction with management, the organizational culture or "the system" as a whole:

People are frustrated that they are treated "as if we were stupid" (for instance when management does not communicate the background of decisions).

People are frustrated that their personal engagement (doing more than what is expected) or experience is not valued or is even regarded as a nuisance.

Often, personal engagement ("the reason why I wanted to do this job") is cut short because the focus inside the organization is merely on quantity of results, efficiency of operation and there is no time to do something "as good as it should be done", for fostering personal work relationships or for developing new ideas.

People are frustrated about a focus on control rather than trust. Consequently, executives are often viewed as inflexible or authoritarian.

In sum, the people I talked to had the feeling that they are not seen or not recognized by management. As a result they tell themselves that their organization does not deserve or want anything else but medium performance.

People seem to put up with their frustrations because...

• They feel helpless ("this is how things are, they will not change and I have to cope somehow").


• They feel dependent on the money or other benefits ("better than no job so I can't complain").
  
• They cannot imagine a different kind of working. Fun or passion are not associated with a job. (And that I find really sad.)

Now, if all of the above was only true for the 10 to 15 people that I spoke with, there would still be no reason to be sad. However, I suspect that I spoke with representatives of the 87% of the employees in Germany that are not emotionally engaged with their work (which means they just "work-to-rule" or are completely disengaged) - this is the figure Gallup found in their 2008 Employee Engagement Survey. I would expect the situation to be worse in the new survey that will be published in spring. And, mind you, I am not talking about a specifically German problem. Compared to some other European countries, Germany is still doing ok.

One might think that having a workforce that is, by and large, neither very committed nor productive should ring a few alarm bells. Not just among companies, but nationwide. After all, national competitiveness, the holy cow, is at stake.

Yet, when politicians talk about the need to increase innovation and creativity (as they do for instance in the "EU 2020" strategy), they don't seem to be aware that the level of de-motivation and mistrust in organizations is working against their planned measures (which focus on R&D investments, new financing models and digital networks).

A key word here is empowerment. Managers should be empowered to shake off the habit of controlling and take on the responsibility to truly see the potential of each employee. Employees need to be empowered so that they can shake off the habit of helplessness and take responsibility for their work engagement.

Empowerment is a process that can be facilitated...yet, individuals or organizations have to go through a learning process on their own. Nobody can do that for them. Facing the anger and frustration is a good start as a lot of energy and power can flow from this. - Exactly what is needed to take responsibility for positive change!