Comments on: Unmotivated Employees – Is It Your Fault or Theirs?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:10:54 +0000

Donna,

I think we may work at the same college.

By: Donna

Donna — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:35:49 +0000

I work as university support staff where there is a notoriously bad “corporate’ culture (academics do not care about running efficient operations, their heads are only in the clouds – it’s not like the real world). Half the employees are walking burnouts, myself included. There simply isn’t anything resembling a serious managerial culture here: projects are proposed, assigned (”dumped” is a better word) and then “maintained” indefinitely without any review or re-strategizing. Employees who do bad or indifferent work are never criticized personally; the whole team gets the criticism. Complaining is discouraged; you’re supposed to suck it up and say “yes sir” even when you know the whole operation is a joke and nothing is being done well because of inadequate staffing or funding. This must have been what Soviet Russia was like.

My job is monotonous, filled with open-ended projects that are impossible to maintain satisfactorily. I get 20 days vacation a year but am able to take maybe a fourth of that because my boss keeps assigning daily tasks that no one is cross-trained on. This whole place is a mess and I hope it collapses soon. When I started out in the work force I was as bright eyed and bushy tailed an overachiever as you could hope to see. Now I do as little as I can get away with, except for short bursts when I feel particularly productive. Believe me, I’d rather be who I was when I was younger, but I’ve found out that you just don’t get rewarded for that sort of thing. You only get rewarded with more impossible tasks. It’s about energy conservation. And hoping against hope that the bad managers creating the culture just… go away. If only there was a way for prospective employees to screen bad managers, the world would be a better place and we could all work to our highest potential more easily.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:06:52 +0000

When I first started my current job, I often got to work 30 minutes before I had to be in. I would fire up my pc, check my mail and then get cracking away at my code. Shortly after, my two best friends started and an old friend was already working with me. The managers (owners) would often plan ’shit off days’ where we would just basically goof off all day, play xbox 360, table top games, etc.

For the last several months however, my motivation has dropped. The motivation of my friends has dropped. Were we doing something wrong? For me it was the management. Our employers would often come in acting like they were on the verge of firing us all, being very short with their answers and greetings, etc.

As a result, our productivity started steadily going down. I had been assigned a month project back in January which I am finally wrapping up now in april. Granted there were several holds ups however, it would have been done a while back. Again, as a result, my employers started getting on my about this and making me feel even worse to the point where I almost walked out of the door.

Solution: I stopped caring as much about if I got fired. I would allow my self to take several more ’slack of’ periods throughout the day and just started trying to have more fun. As a result, things are getting better for me… which in turn helps the moral of everyone else.

By: guinevere

guinevere — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:29:10 +0000

I couldn’t have been more motivated but now I look at my job solely as what I do to pay the bills. The reason? Soul-sucking poor management. It took 10 years for me to finally succumb to the dark side but here I am patiently awaiting the retirement that will come in 30 odd years.

Oh, and by the way, I’m creeped out that this website advertises the Mormon faith.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:44:26 +0000

In my opinion, the important question is not who is at fault, but what to do about improving the situation before it gets too far out of hand.

By: Diane Ensey

Diane Ensey — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 17:16:48 +0000

It is less of a “who’s to blame” and more of a “why are they unmotivated?” Is the company culture at fault or did they just hire the wrong person? I’ve hired people who started out wonderful, but when they figured out that the company was not going to change to fit their concept of “a fun place to work” they lost interest, became unmotivated and, frankly, a liability.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 16:18:47 +0000

Rob,

I agree wholeheartedly with Skip that it’s all about teamwork. That’s why it is vitally important to hire as much for attitude as skill set.

And one of the reasons I like Good To Great (no offense): First Who, Then What is always good advice.