Down on your work? Maybe your work puts you down

Remember the first day on your new job? Your eyes twinkled with the possibilities of this new opportunity and you talked with family and friends about what the future could bring. That first morning you dressed with care and looked forward to learning something new and meeting new people.

That was three years ago but it seems so far away and foreign you can barely remember that happy anticipation. All the eager motivation and energy have drained away and all that remains is your miserable job. How did you end up like this--bad attitude, doing the bare minimum, hating your boss and bitter about your company? Let's go back in time to discover what happened...

It all began to sour that first week. When you showed up for your first day your boss never took the time to introduce you to your co-workers. You ate lunch by yourself. Your training consisted of reading a few manuals and going through old files to piece together what you thought was expected of you.

You were never told how to do the job right but you sure have been told every time you've done the job wrong. Like a dog with a shock collar, you've been zapped every time you made a mistake; like the time you were told you were an "idiot" for forgetting something and another time when you were laughed at in a meeting because you asked a question.

A few times you've had ideas on how to make the job more efficient but when you told your boss his response was, "What are you wasting your time for? Get back to work. It's my job to worry about how this place runs! If you spent more time worrying about your own job you might be worth your paycheck!" It was about that time that you began to do a slow burn.

You decided to just do your job and forget about your boss. But one day you found a serious mistake in the product that would look bad to the customer. When you took steps to correct the problem your boss reprimanded you for being so slow. When you pointed out the problem, he told you to fudge the paperwork to hide the mistake. When you began to protest he said, "You're insubordinate!" The slow burn began to ignite.

Several months later, you were yelled at and sent home without pay for not wearing your safety shoes. When you argued that other people weren't wearing their shoes (including the boss himself) you were suspended without pay for insubordination.

When you returned to work, you decided to lay low and just do your job. In spite of your growing anger toward your boss, you still wanted to do a good job for your own sense of pride and for the company. You started to put suggestions in the suggestion box. You figured that was a safe way to make improvements and maybe even make a little extra money.

It worked. The suggestion committee was painfully slow but at least some of your ideas got implemented. You were feeling pretty good until the day the supervisor in charge of the suggestion committee came to your work area. He told you to stop putting ideas in the box. When you asked why, he replied, "Give somebody else a chance to win. And besides you've been costing the company too much money." The sparks burst into hot flame.

Then one day, the company announced that it was embarking on a quality improvement program. Everyone's productivity had to improve because the company was losing money and customers. Management said all the right words: customer service, empowerment, open communication... Your hope began to rise but you were cynical--all of this sounded too good to be true.

You decided to try again. You talked to an engineer about a problem but he said his hands were tied by "procedures you wouldn't understand." You talked to your boss about it and he said he'd get back to you but he never did.

Rumors began about a lay off. In fact one group of employees came up with a great idea about how to be more efficient. A month later one of them was laid off; their suggestion cost one of them a job. Everyone else began to do a slow burn, too.

It's now three years later and you just feel angry. You don't care about the company and you despise your boss. If you weren't feeling so low you'd try to find another job. You feel trapped. The pay isn't bad so you're going to stick around take whatever you can get.

Believe it or not I didn't make these situations up. This thoughtless, demeaning, unfair environment is an everyday reality for more people than you think. This story is a compilation of many inept supervisors and uncaring work places.

These ignorant managers gripe because they can't find any "good" employees. They don't realize that they don't hire de-motivated people. They hire motivated people and then systematically de-motivate them. If you're a manager with an employee who has a "bad attitude" consider how they got that way. If you contributed to it, I suggest you begin with a heartfelt apology. It won't put out the fire but it's a start.

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