Employee productivity and retention are both closely tied to contentment. While there are many factors that can impact contentment, employees’ relationship with management and the employer is arguably the heaviest one. If you are a manager or employer and you want to sabotage your company’s productivity, the following are a few surefire ways to make your employees hate you.
Start Off with a Misleading Job Description
Sugar coating the details of a job, failing to mention the aspects of a job that may be less desirable, and overall setting poor expectations for what a job will entail is a good way to start off on the wrong foot. Employees whose expectations aren’t met after starting at a job will be more likely to leave quickly. Employees’ skills and personalities may also be poorly matched for a job, but they won’t know until after they start if the job description is misleading.
Micromanage Constantly
Micromanagement is generally perceived as a lack of faith in employees’ skills and ability to follow rules, which can be disheartening. Micromanagement also interrupts employees from their tasks, which can affect productivity and thwart efforts to concentrate. Perhaps the most annoying type of micromanagement is the micromanagement of employee down time, such as bathroom breaks.
Show a Lack of Compassion and Humanity
Employees are only human, so mistakes are bound to be made and issues are bound to arise. Yelling at employees for being a few minutes late one time or making a minor error will breed resentment, rather than help to solve the problems. Showing a lack of flexibility when personal problems arise and generally exhibiting a lack of compassion may seem to benefit the business in the moment, but may backfire if the employee decides to find a more compassionate employer.
Dole Out Blame Generously
Responsible managers and employers take responsibility for the big picture and use problems as an opportunity for education. If you would prefer to aggravate your employees, single them out for their errors and make no move to help them avoid making the mistake in the future. Blaming employees for errors and issues that were partially or totally your fault may go even further in making them hate you.
Avoid Consistency
Consistency allows employees to work with greater independence and fosters contentment, as employees know what to expect. Assigning tasks as they come up and constantly changing expectations and daily routines has the opposite effect, breeding dissatisfaction and insecurity. Additionally, employees will have to wait to find out what each day holds, so their productivity will likely suffer.
Buy Into Pettiness
Gossip and conflicts are typical among workplaces, but good managers put a stop to the talk and work to resolve the conflicts as they are brought to light. Buying into the gossip and contributing to the conflicts is a great way to alienate certain employees and cultivate a disharmonious environment in the workplace. Eventually, this type of behavior can lead to bullying and may even result in lawsuits.
It’s easy to make employees hate you, it’s much more difficult to promote a setting in which employees are happy and productive. If the latter is what you would prefer, avoid the above actions. Talk to your employees to gauge their contentment and figure out any behaviors or issues that may be troubling them and affecting the atmosphere in your business.
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