I bought a new car and returned to the dealer for the first oil change. The rep at the counter advised me to find a new place for the next routine maintenance because this dealership was closing.
“Last month we sold only five cars,” he explained. A friendly guy and someone who seemed to know his stuff. I found another dealer to change my oil after that day.
Two years later, I had some kind of car trouble, coincidentally, not far from where I bought the car. I called AAA and they towed it to the nearest mechanic who could address the problem — that dealer. My tow driver left my car in their parking lot. I spoke to the service manager. “I thought you guys were going out of business.”
His face turned serious. “Oh, we had a severely disgruntled employee and had no idea,” he said. “He really did some serious damage to our business, telling everyone just what he told you.”
The dealership never recovered and eventually closed.
The disgruntled employee threatens the future of every company
Few people realize how much a disgruntled employee can damage and even destroy a business. What is worse, in this case, the management had no idea the employee was secretly destroying their dealership from the inside. That is not unusual.
Imagine if the employee was nasty to me: “Don’t be stupid and don’t come here anymore, go somewhere else.”
Obviously, I could complain and maybe call his supervisor. That would be a warning sign to the management. The disgruntled employee I spoke to was professional with me and really personable. Somehow, he had some kind of unaddressed issue with the company or maybe with other employees and it was not obvious. Surely, there was no regular disciplinary record as again company management would be alerted.
Some reasons employee become disgruntled
CareerMinds, a website for HR professionals, highlights reasons for such disgruntled behavior.
Let us look at several:
Lack of Recognition. This is the employer or manager who overlooks the effort of some or all of their employees. Some will take it personally that the ones who receive the recognition are the same all the time.
Others do great work too, but management does not notice how much they do their best for the company, even sacrificing for it. These good employees watch others receive bonuses and recognition over and over again and it is painful to them. It may indeed be that they may not seem as productive as the other workers but they may actually work harder because they are doing more for the company than other workers, it is just less visible. It seems less because their sacrifices do not translate into productivity statistics. In fact, the “stars” may be better at marketing themselves to the supervisors while the unrecognized employee is good at being productive but not at making it known.
All of a sudden, company management learns the hard way it took the employee for granted and recognized others at his or her expense. This may not mean a retaliatory act, the valued employee may just leave for a better job and work environment. You’re left filling a vacancy that you did not realize was so big.
Favoritism — This is related: here the boss’ friends receive recognition all the time. Management considers them the best workers and maybe are not the good employees the boss believes them to be at all. The supervisor favors them through friendship, relationship or some other issue including plain and simple flattery.
A Forbes article on disgruntled employees found that many felt unsatisfied because the boss played favorites.
When I was in the Navy, the boss’ favorites were all his drinking buddies whom he gave the afternoon off daily so they could all go to the local bar. He would then complain to all of us the next morning that the work was not being done.
Disrespect — This is the employee who gets mocked regularly but does not respond and takes it in stride. Everyone feels he or she is ok with it until that one day the person snaps either engaging in behavior that undermines the mission of the company or even commits a violent episode out of character for the employee.
Any form of disrespectful treatment needs to be addressed immediately. Even if the target employee says he or she does not mind the insults. It has no place in the workplace. What is worse is even if the employee does not mind, others may be bothered from seeing one of their own treated in this way.
A University of British Columbia study from the Sauder School of Public Affairs discovered just that dynamic. Those who witnessed bullying in a company, although they were not subject to it, were just as prone to be dissatisfied with their employment as the targets of the bullying itself.
Lack of career growth — What happens when employees have no future in the company except what they are doing now. They see others promoted and while they remain consistently passed over and do not know why. Maybe they know the reason but cannot make the changes necessary for advancement. If there is nowhere else to go, this opens the door to losing the worker to a competitor or through some form of retaliation. Employees who see a future ahead of them will have an incentive to be more loyal to the company. Those who feel boxed in and do not like the job they are doing may become discouraged. That is fodder for trouble.
I know of companies that have a policy where only those with college degrees can be promoted to management. Many high school graduates who serve the company well have the experience that colleges do not teach. That is a faulty policy.
Passive-aggressive behavior
Much of the damage by a disgruntled employee such as at the car dealership is passive-aggressive. The employee modeled it perfectly. Underhanded and secret, it can destroy an organization or person but in an indirect way. It is quite effective but cowardly. The personable attitude of the employee while secretly stabbing everyone in the dealership in the back is a textbook example of this behavior.
Actively aggressive employees make their grievances known right away. This is why, although it may seem counter-intuitive, the aggressive persons who speak their minds when angry will be honest with you when there is a problem. The passive-aggressive “I am fine” employee will stab you in the back so well, you will think it was a comfortable pat until you see the blood.
Another form is the one who holds it all in until one day he or she explodes on another employee.
Solutions
You can do what you can to ensure that there are solutions to the employee who is not happy.
— do not allow any form of mocking or insulting to go on in the work environment
— make sure every employee feels valued. “Hey, great job,” goes a long way to every employee and team.
— eliminate every policy that turns employment into a dead-end job for some. For example, expanding qualifications to “a college degree or equivalent experience.” Remember, some of the most successful entrepreneurs are college dropouts. Some did not even graduate high school.
— Do not consider only the most visible employees for rewards and promotions. They may not be making the sacrifices for the company that another is. Their family may be suffering because of their devotion to their job. Another may be successfully balancing both responsibilities and not receiving recognition for it.
— If you feel an employee is not benefitting the company, you can begin the process for termination but make sure you do all you can to help the employee transition well. Firing an employee well may prevent damage from any form of retaliation without demoralizing the remaining workers.
Termination, however, must always be a last resort. You want to do your best to retain the employee and make him or her happy to work there. You will increase productivity not only of the employee but of the department or team. Remember, you need to figure in the cost of hiring a new employee with the process of terminating the disgruntled one.
Had the disgruntled employee been known to the management of the car dealership, termination would have been best because his damage to the company was fatal. That is not always the case. Think of what this car dealer lost from one disgruntled employee. If management did their best to prevent this even if they had to invest a certain amount of money, it would have been worth it to prevent the loss of the whole company.
Some situations cause employees to be disgruntled that you cannot prevent such as issues at home, undiagnosed mental illness and other situations. If you can address those within your power you may increase your company’s productivity. You may turn a previously disgruntled employee to be a star of the company and/or maybe even just save the company from the fatal disease of passive aggression.
I almost terminated my best employee once. I was new as manager, so I inherited him. This was for a church where he was a janitor for the school and church. Prior to me being elevated to administrator, the parish closed the school.
I found the employee now just working for the church and refitting himself to that job and not doing it well. He was a real problem. After discussing the issue with an advisor, explaining that I was at the end of my rope, she suggested he may have a form of autism. I looked into it and spoke with an occupational therapist. She explained he had classic symptoms of undiagnosed Asperger’s. Once I learned how to deal with this new understanding, he became my best employee. I was since transferred to work in another place. Now, I also help others learn how to interact with employees with Asperger’s.
As the car dealership management learned, one disgruntled employee was a fatal threat to its success. Doing all you can to build a strong and vibrant work environment is as essential as any other issue you do to improve productivity. Remember, the department is not called human resources for nothing.
The author is an administrator in the field of pastoral ministry and church management.