What is job dissatisfaction?
Job dissatisfaction is when an employee does not feel satisfaction in their current job. When their expectations aren’t met, the employee is left with a negative perception and a lack of motivation and commitment to their work and the organization.
What causes job dissatisfaction?
When an employee’s expectations from their job aren’t met, it can bing over feelings of disappointment, bitterness, and a lack of interest. Job dissatisfaction can emerge from a variety of reasons like:
- Being underpaid
- An unsupportive or untrustworthy manager
- Lack of career growth opportunities in an organization
- Lack of work-life balance
- Poor administration and management
What are the signs of job dissatisfaction?
There are five key signs of job dissatisfaction. By identifying them on time, employers can use them to better gauge the level of dissatisfaction in the workplace and make the required changes.
1. Lack of interest
One of the early signs of job dissatisfaction is the lack of interest that can progressively grow worse over time and will impact work performance. For instance, frequently browsing through social media during work hours can illustrate disinterest in one’s work.
2. Procrastination
Job dissatisfaction can lead to employees that procrastinate. An employee who procrastinates would wait until the last minute to complete their tasks, make excuses for not working on projects earlier, and fail to organize their work efficiently due to limited time working on it.
3. Irritability
Jobs are stressful, and if employees are constantly stressed and in an irritable mood, it will make them even more dissatisfied with their jobs. Not only does irritability affect one’s mental health, but it also effect team morale.
4. Absenteeism
Another sign of job dissatisfaction absenteeism, where employees that aren’t happy with their jobs lack the initiative to carry out their responsibilities, and thus have a tendency to call in sick frequently. Absenteeism shows that an employee is unengaged and uncommitted to their work.
5. Lack of effort
When an employee doesn’t fully invest their expertise and talent into their job, then this is a sign of job dissatisfaction.
What are employee responses to job dissatisfaction?
How an employee responds to job dissatisfaction can be broken down into four categories:
1. Exit
The exit form of response is when an employee decides to leave their current organization or transfers to a different department to get away from their unhappy situation.
2. Voice
Employees that fall in this category would speak up about their negative experience to management and also provide recommendation on improving. The Voice category is acknowledged at the most constructive approach to job dissatisfaction.
3. Loyalty
Employees that respond with loyalty will tend to not take any action. These employees will simply stay put at their job with the hope that changes will materialise one day.
4. Neglect
And employees that respond with neglect will perform their duties poorly rather than actively seeking to improve their situation. They may frequently be absent from work, submit poor work, and be unresponsive in messages/emails.
How to overcome job dissatisfaction?
Job dissatisfaction stems from the employee experience. In order to overcome it, employers must tap into employee issues and enhance their experience. Here are a number of ways to boost employee experience and combat job dissatisfaction.
- Give recognition
Give recognition to employees by celebrating milestones and praying them for their hard work. Employers can also consider implementing a reward system where employees receive some sort of compensation in exchange for their services, like more paid time off, team outings, etc.
- Provide training and mentoring
Training and mentoring can provide opportunities for employees to be more skilful in their roles, be given candid yet caring feedback, and tips on the most efficient and successful ways to climb the career ladder.
- Build a payroll strategy that is tied with performance
Have a payroll and compensation strategy that keeps employees productive and satisfied. Keep into consideration the employee’s career trajectory and tie that into compensation to boost motivation, morale, and productivity.
- Listen and maintain constant communication
Being vocal about one’s dissatisfaction is one of the most constructive ways that employees can bring their concerns to management. Accordingly, managers can provide constructive responses to that feedback. This will enable employees to be heard and management to take steps to address the needs that aren’t being met.
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