Disengaging an Employee - An Example of Mismanagement
Our last blog post talked about how important engagement is to safety and employee well-being (which, of course, is also good for an organizartion's bottom line). But what else is impacted when employees disengage?
Well, a recent story shared by a friend shows that productivity, creativity, and commitment also suffer.
This friend was aggressively pursued by the head of research project. Most of the researchers on the project are students or recent graduates, while my friend is a PhD with both Canadian and international experience. The project head badly wanted his expertise on her project.
Eager to contribute as quickly as possible, my friend jumped right into a brainstorming session with the research team, looking for ways to improve the rate of progress and enhance project results.
Apparently, his boss wanted his expertise on the project, but didn't want him to share it!
He was reprimanded for taking ideas directly to the team instead of running them by her first. She then told him never to engage directly with the other researchers, because they may get confused about who was the boss.
When he was describing this incident to me he said, "I guess I showed my passion to soon - I definitely won't contribute anymore. I'll just do my own work until I find a new job". He put his hands up in front of him like a wall as he said it -physically demonstrating the separation he now feels from the organization and the project he was wooed to join.
By putting control and "chain of command" ahead of enagagement, this employer has now lost the enthusiasm, experience and creativity she worked so hard to capture with this hire. Of course, productivity on the project will also suffer as my friend pulls away mentally...and it will suffer even more when he leaves and she has to replace him.
