Reader reacts to article about person who wants to leave his her job after three months
In last week’s column I responded to a professional who wanted to leave her job after three months because a bigger, more desirable job opened up unexpectedly. But she worried about the wrath of her employer. The following is a reader’s response to that column.
Dear Joan:
I am the HR department at a non-profit. One of the things I tell our staff is that I believe in happiness. I would much rather have someone be happy someplace else than unhappy here. That also gives their replacement the possibility of being happy in a new job as well.
I also tell them that if they want to job hunt and need to have a reference person at our organization, they should list me. I keep their job search confidential and I have all of the information that a prospective employer would need. Yes, we have turnover, but that's an acceptable loss compared to the damage an unhappy worker can cause.
Having them leave on a good note makes them less likely to cause any of the problems terminating employees are capable of causing, and may make them more eager to return to us if something that fits them better opens with us at a later date. I've even helped employees with their résumés.
The ones that cause me more problems are the unhappy gripers who can't seem to move on. They constantly bellyache about their jobs and the working conditions, don't produce up to expectations, make everyone else's lives miserable, but don't seem to want to find a better place to work. It makes me sad to see their unhappiness and makes me really want them to be happy - someplace else.
I've tried to help them by clipping job ads from newspapers and (anonymously) putting the ads on their desks. They're usually quiet for a time after that, which makes the rest of us a lot happier.
Answer:
Thanks for your refreshing approach. I know many managers have employees they want to be happy someplace else.
As you know, this problem goes far beyond happiness. When a negative, underperforming employee spends more time bellyaching than meeting expectations it has a serious impact on the performance and attitude of the employees who are meeting and exceeding expectations.
The good employees are wondering when the manager is going to step in and do something. They hope that Human Resources will give the manager advice and tools to confront the employee and spell out consequences. They hope that the employee will be given clear expectations about meetings standards of cooperation, teamwork, and completing their work on time and with reasonable quality. They want the employee to be fired if he or she doesn’t meet those standards.
I get frustrated when managers tell me they can’t fire an employee for behavioral violations. For example, I recently met with a manager who described truly unacceptable behavior from one of his employees—cruelty to new employees, coercing employees to break rules and talk back to the manager, inappropriate outbursts in meetings. This manager coached and counseled for years. Meanwhile the good employees were cowering in fear of this employee and would be badgered and abused if they didn’t do what she wanted. Who’s running this place?
I applaud your willingness to subtly suggest some bellyachers go find something that will make them happy. But I hope you are also proactively showing managers how to turn up the heat under these people and make them either step up to the standards or step out. Sometimes I think showing them the door is better than hinting that they may want to open it on their own.
Good managers know that employee satisfaction is essential to healthy teamwork, initiative and productivity. Joan Lloyd’s booklet, 86 Creative Ideas for Having More Fun & Less Stress at Work, is packed with ideas for building employee satisfaction and work/life balance while reducing stress in your workplace. Guaranteed to give you fresh ideas any company can implement in categories such as: Fun with a Purpose, Building a Family Atmosphere & a Sense of Community, Having Fun at Work for the Sake of Fun, Rewarding Great Performance & Stress Busters! Also available by return email, in PDF format!
Joan Lloyd has a solid track record of excellent results. Her firm, Joan Lloyd & Associates, specializes in leadership development, organizational change and teambuilding. This includes executive coaching, 360-degree feedback processes, customized leadership & presentation skills training, team assessment and teambuilding and retreat facilitation. Joan also provides consulting skills training for HR professionals. Clients report results such as: behavior change in leaders, improved team performance and a more committed workforce.
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