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The View from the Ground • Rob Minton
Breaking off
our engagement
Rob Minton, ABC,
may be reached at rnminton@yahoo.com
In a letter to the CEO, an articulate employee explains why he’s
no longer engaged in his job, why he feels alienated from his company.
He also explains what it will take to bring him back into the fold.
Dear CEO,
It hurts me to say this, but I have decided to break off our engagement. I am joining the ever-
growing ranks of employees who are no longer engaged in their job or with their employer.
I would think you saw this coming, but maybe not. Sometimes I feel that you live in a fantasy
world that is just too far removed from the reality of what is going on in the workplace. Or maybe
you’re getting bad counsel from advisers who have been entrenched in the “old way” of doing
things too long, and can’t relate to today’s workers or environment.
It’s not any one thing that causes a breakup. It never is. It is the buildup of behaviors and actions
over time. It’s all the little things that get in the way of me being able to do my job in a way that
provides the most satisfaction, and in turn, the most productivity.
And it looks like I’m not alone in feeling this way. According to a recent study by the Gallup
Organization, 70 percent of workers are not engaged in their work. About two-thirds of those are
physically productive in their jobs, but not psychologically involved in their work. The rest are
known as the “working retired.”
So what is causing this breakup between employee and employer? As I said, it’s not just one
thing, but also a confluence of factors. For instance, with the current recession, we are cutting our
work force. While this may provide a near-term lift to the bottom line, from where I sit you are
not thinking this through. When you cut people but don’t reduce the workload by a similar
amount, you have a problem.
Now, I’m the first person (or I used to be) to take on an extra assignment, or to help out in a
pinch. But it can’t be a way of life. Someone at the top has to stand up and tell us what we can
stop doing, so we can do the things that are really important. I don’t hear it.
I know the organization values communicating to employees. But I feel that zeal to
communicate…believe it or not…may be contributing to the problem.
Management has gotten its collective knuckles rapped so many times for doing a poor job of
communicating, that now you go to the extreme and feelyou have to communicate just about
everything to everybody. You’ve turned on the fire hose of information and people are drowning
on the receiving end.
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And why do you make such a big deal over communicating things that don’t matter to me, and
none of us pay attention to anyway? Let me give you a recent example. I see no connection
between the latest training program on “corporate governance and ethics” and how that gets our
product into the hands of customers. Maybe there is a connection, but no one is explaining it to
me. It’s just two hours of time that I have to spend on something that takes me away from my job.
It seems to us on the front lines that no one at the top is paying attention to the signals that
communicate more than words. Sometimes, these signals are all employees have to identify what
you think is really important. And believe me, we pay attention to that stuff, a lot more than you
must realize. How do you think it looks when—in the space of one week—you say, “employees
are our competitive advantage” and ask for employees to work harder,cut costs and improve
sales? But then you announce that because of market pressures,benefits are being reduced to save
money. And it doesn’t help when a few days later the local newspaper runs a front-page story
about your multimillion dollar salary.
Maybe you don’t see the connection between these things, but I do, and so do most other
employees. You see,while the companies like AIG and Bear Stearns grab the spotlight, it’s the
little things that break down the trust between management and workers. Things like behaviors
not matching actions, not following through on commitments, lack of clarity on what’s truly
important. It’s no wonder that less than two-out-of-five employees have trust or confidence in
senior management (Watson Wyatt).
So what can we work on together to restore the emotional connection between you and me? Here
are my ideas:
1. We need to have a common definition of communication. You see communication as an event,
or a mechanism. I see it as an ongoing, everyday activity that helps me do my job. Does every
communication to your employees have the proper context and relevancy to mean anything to
them? If not, then I would argue it is information, not communication. And information can and
should be disseminated in an entirely different way. If what you’re telling me doesn’t help me
know where we are on this journey together called “business,” then how do you expect me to
contribute?
2. Get Human Resources and Communications to work together. Both groups hold huge levers to
create organizational understanding and change, and help people clearly see their roles within the
organization. But all you have to do is look at the timing and the tone of most of their
communications to see that they never talk to each other. Instead of preaching to us about the
value of adhering to the Sarbanes-Oxley act, why not get HR and Communications to work
together to improve the communication skills of my manager?
3. Stop relying on the cascade method of communication. Don’t assume that managers are
passing on the information you want them to. Information is power, and many managers hoard
information like a gold nugget, disseminating it only when it is to their advantage. Middle
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management is like a big sponge that soaks up a lot of information, but very little drips out to
employees. Yes, most of what I need to know I can get from my supervisor, but it would be nice
to hear from you every now and then. We do care about the big picture of our business and the
external factors that impact it. It helps provide the framing for what’s going on inside our four
walls.
4. Remember that your need to tell does not equal my need to hear. So turn off the fire hose, and
put more emphasis on helping managers do a better job of communicating to their people day in
and day out. Sometimes I feel like I’m playing the corporate version of “Where’s Waldo,” trying
to identify the truly meaningful information among all the clutter that gets heaped on us. Let’s
have a dialogue about the things that are really important to both of us, but don’t drown me with
the latest policy change. If I need to know about it, I’ll find it when I’m ready.
5. Talk to me as an adult. You may believe that “telling” people what to do is easier, and saves us
from having to think for ourselves. But that only contributes to employee disengagement.
Communicate with us like we actually have brains, and you might be surprised at the result.
Don’t sugarcoat bad news. We can see what is going on around us, both inside and outside the
organization.
Well, that’s the situation as I see it. I don’t think our relationship is beyond repair. That’s the
great thing about emotional satisfaction… it’s a corporate asset that can be restored by focusing
on the things that make a difference. Ask the right questions and listen to your people. Every
relationship takes work to keep it vibrant and fulfilling…and I’m willing to make this work if you
are.
What can communicators do to
ensure that employees stay engaged
in their jobs and have a positive
impact on productivity? Here are a
few thoughts:
Communicators role in employee engagement
• As communicators, we have to make sense of information by helping employees “connect the
dots”…help them discover how seemingly unrelated initiatives tie back to the business. And if we
don’t make those connections obvious, we’re not doing our jobs in advising management what to
communicate or not to communicate.
• Look for opportunities to work with HR. In most companies, both groups do typically operate in
silos. Working together to improve the communication capabilities of managers, and to ensure the
accountability for effective communication, would be a tremendous accomplishment that would
have a huge payback for the organization. Both Communications and HR want desperately to be
seen as valued business partners … what better way to create that value?
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• Bring an external perspective into the way you communicate internally. The communications
function should be the “organizational conscience,” because for communicators to do our jobs
well, we have to be constantly sensing and responding to the environment around us. Information
has to provide context and relevance to be accepted and meaningful.