They just don’t care

How do you assess the degree to which you are valued by your employer?

Is it the size of the number on your payslip? It could be the type of office you have (we all want a high floor corner office), the nature of your business or office bennies (free lunch anyone?).

Corporate appreciation is one thing, they often can expense all those nice perks but if you work for a sole trader or small company it may not be so straightforward.

For any organization, employees are often their most valued and one of their most expensive resources. People are also not very homogenous and the fact that they are all different, means that a manager or business owner has to think carefully about them. Many organizations think that the number one people motivator is money. Pay them enough and they will stay.

Well the FAANG staff retention challenges are demonstrating that this is not entirely true. Yes, some people are very mercenary and effectively coin-operated BUT there are an awful lot of people out there and wide swings of variability in their expectations of work.

For many, motivation to work and motivation to stay are often tied to the culture of the organization and the nature of the work accompanied by general characteristics of loyalty to the company – in a nutshell, the degree to which a person simply enjoys their job.

The fundamental question of “should I stay or should I go?”, for many employees comes down the whole question of alignment. As an employee you would ask yourself almost continuously, is my performance valued in the company? Do I get praise and recognition from my leadership? Am I appropriately remunerated for the work that I do and the responsibilities that I have?

Some clues as to whether you’re really valued are encapsulated in these concepts:

You’re just an employee – all that counts is work performance. Your domestic and private life are of no interest and no consequence, if you don’t like the job, just quit

You’re here to do job X, just get on with it. Task based work where your professional development and aspirations are ignored suggests that your desires for the future are irrelevant to your employer. Career development is never discussed and there are no milestones for career development or opportunities for growth. It is a numbers game and you’re just a number.

No please, no thank you. The most basic form of gratitude and appreciation is rewarding you with thanks for what you do, whether it be a special project, a difficult task or something extraordinary. If this acknowledgement is missing then this is a clue. If it is in stark contrast with the recognition of others then that’s worse.

You’re going home, what is this half-day? Sometimes we cant get the job done in the allotted hours and we need to work a little longer, that’s a appreciated, acknowledged and recognized but as soon as you have to go home early you get sniped at, looked at funny or joked with. Give and take is a two way street, you can’t expect overtime and then not give it back.

Fairweather friends. If you find that your manager is on one day and off the next, in terms of the way that they deal with you or if they never choose to be even cursorily social with you during the course of the day or at the end, these are clues that you’re not part of the ‘in crowd’. No golf tournaments, free tickets, free lunch or cocktail hour for you.

Big decisions are made without you. Are you observing that big decisions are all being taken in isolation of you, your opinion and your input? These could be as simple as new team members suddenly appearing at work and you not being introduced to them, not being part of the interview process and not even being consulted. New hiring in particular, where you are isolated and marginalized, suggests you don’t matter. Work reassignment without consultation is another.

Clear Communications. Smaller companies are sometimes still trying to work out how to do business. There is no excuse for a failure to communicate though, unless you are considered untrustworthy, in which case, why would you hang around?

Genuine appreciation. Small tokens of appreciation drive many miles of dedication and commitment. These can be small things like a gift card, a cup of coffee bought from the local coffee shop, donuts in the office, a greeting card, a gift voucher or a few banknotes as a small token of appreciation for your efforts and dedication to the business.

Appraisal and constructive feedback. Appraisals often only happen annually but in a good organization that values its people, this should happen pretty much continuously and at the very least every quarter or semi annually. AT appraisal time it should be clear what was expected, what you did and what you weren’t so good at. The appraisal should be specific and directed. If this isnt happening then the work environment may just be random, in which case the appraisal may be just lip service at best but really engineered to thrash you when there is disappointment in something. If appraisal is disorganized then it become pretty clear that the business doesn’t much care about staff and staff continuity.

Promotion. People who are good at their jobs expect to get ahead in their job. If you’re passed over for promotion and have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to do the job and by all accounts you see that you are doing it well and there is no good reason for progression, then you’ll have to acknowledge that there is a problem. When one is passed over for promotion continuously there is often no real recourse and the suggestion is that you should move on. New positions with new jobs titles can be created by organizations, especially smaller ones, if they want to retain people.

Bullying. There is a fine line to be drawn when it comes to distinguishing between demanding bosses and those who bully their employees. Bullying often comes down to sustained and repeated occurrences of harassment and intimidation. A boss that uses a lot of profanity and distasteful language might themselves not think that they are being a bully but this can be particularly intimidating for the more delicate employee. A boss that is aggressive, rude and engages in social isolation of some team members is bad for morale and is telling you, if you’re the subject of their behaviour, that you don’t matter.

Your health and mental well-being should be your No1 priority even in work. A toxic workplace culture has a clear impact on ones’ well-being and job satisfaction, and can spill over into personal life, evaluate your circumstances regularly and never simply settle.

You’ll thank yourself in the long run.