9 Management Behaviors that Burn Employees Out

When employees start at a new company, they enter their job with a sense of excitement, interest, and a desire to do well. As anyone who recalls the feeling of starting at a new company can attest, new employees want to be engaged with their jobs. Why is it then that time and again, we see so many disengaged employees within the ranks of tenured personnel at all types of organizations? At Sitoumus, we have found that it is primarily organizations themselves that prevent their employees from becoming and staying enthusiastically involved in their jobs. 

The most damaging way companies destroy enthusiasm and job commitment is by promoting and retaining managers that do not enable a culture of engagement on their teams. The HR adage that “people quit their bosses, not their jobs” holds true. And, not only do managers undermine individual employees, their actions can quickly result in a disengaged team. How does this happen? Many management behaviors erode three pillars of engagement: a sense of fairness, psychological safety, and clear vision and direction. Below we explore some of the specific behaviors managers often engage in that prevent employees from performing their best work, and will eventually send them packing for good.

 I.      Lack of Fairness

Gallup has identified a lack of fairness in the workplace as the most significant factor in predicting employee burnout in 2020. In our work with teams around the world, we have found a sense of fairness to be one of the pillars of engagement. However, managers often erode this key element of engagement accelerate employee burnout by:

• Taking credit for their team’s achievements and generally “making it about them”.

Managers take on a great deal of responsibility and deserve recognition from their superiors. And as employees themselves, they also have their own careers to consider. However, when it comes to the achievements of their team, managers need to be humble -- distributing credit and praise where it is deserved. Even when good management is a driving force behind a team’s success, effective managers will identify and magnify the contributions of the individual members of the team. These managers know that when they allow their people to shine, without stepping in front of the team’s success, team members will feel supported, fairly treated, and not overshadowed by their manager.

• Failing to clearly communicate decisions surrounding compensation and promotions.

While managers may not intentionally act unfairly when it comes to promotions, raises, and bonuses, they often may not clearly communicate these decisions, leading to a sense of unfairness on the team. Conversations about pay can be awkward, leaving many managers to skip over them when the time comes. But if employees are confused as to where they stand on the team or why they were passed over in favor of another employee, they will feel unfairly treated. Not all employees can or should be promoted and rewarded equally, but all have the right to know where they stand, and how they can reach their full potential in their position. 

• Playing favorites by showing a preference for the ideas, opinions, and achievements of some employees over others.

Managers will naturally get along with some of their employees better than others, and inevitably some team members will produce better work than their peers. While promotions and bonuses should be awarded based on performance, managers need to be careful that they are not giving preferential treatment to the employees they personally like the most. When the team senses that more weight is being given to one worker’s opinions, or they are being advocated for more strongly by their boss, they will quickly become disengaged and resentful, and the entire team morale will suffer as a result. Fairness is paramount to a sense of psychological safety in the workplace. If employees do not firmly believe their organization is a fair place to work, they will begin to examine whether their efforts might be better appreciated somewhere else.

 II.       Lack of Psychological Safety 

We have identified psychological safety -- the feeling of being able to speak up, be heard, and be accepted as an individual on the team -- as the second pillar of employee engagement. However, we also find that managers often, perhaps unintentionally, decrease the psychological safety of their teams by:

• Being absent from their team or mentally “checked out”. 

Being present is a deceivingly simple foundation of good leadership. What should be a given is not always easy for managers to achieve, since managerial presence requires consistent mental attention to their employees. It is not enough for managers to show up early some of the time or have meaningful check-ins with their employees occasionally. They need to maintain a connection with their team members and an awareness of what is going on in their professional and even personal lives. When employees feel isolated or abandoned, psychological safety decreases and disengagement grows. To prevent this, the manager’s main task is making sure employees feel heard, supported, and advocated for within the larger organization.

• Micromanaging -- dictating minor details of how tasks should be completed and prioritizing “my way” over results.

Being completely absent is not permissible for any manager, but at the other end of the spectrum, managers can be overly involved in the day-to-day functions of their team members. When managers micromanage, they insist on having things done their way, not allowing people to grow or exercise freedom and creativity. Not only does this behavior smother engagement, but it also decreases psychological safety, and critically, stifles innovation. While there will be mistakes along the way, there will also be efficiencies and improvements that materialize as the result of allowing people to take ownership and flourish in their respective roles. With clearly defined targets and performance indicators, managers can ensure that expectations are met without feeling the need to supervise how every task gets done. 

• Expecting employees to learn, work, and operate the way they themselves do.

People tend to assume their perspective of the world is closely shared by those around them. This extends to how managers view their employees. Even though it is well documented that there are many different ways individuals learn and work, managers too often assume their employees function best the same way they do. In contrast, great managers will increase psychological safety by getting to know their employees and their preferred styles of communication, organization, and collaboration. They may even ask new team members to take an assessment to determine working and learning preferences. This allows managers to maximize the effectiveness and engagement of the people they have been entrusted to manage.

  III.      Lack of Clear Vision

An inspiring vision and clear directions are critical for strong employee engagement. However, often managers lack the ability or will to provide such direction and consequently reduce team engagement by:

•  Refusing to set a clear, consistent, positive example.

When managers expect employees to bring more to the table than they themselves bring, there is a recipe for disengagement. This principle of leading by example applies to all aspects of management, and it is critical in building successful teams. From punctuality to participation in team-building activities, employees will match the attendance and enthusiasm of their manager. Bosses need to set the tone for their team with actions first, and then reinforced with words and written policies. Managers who set low standards with their own actions will get low results from their team.

• Failing to provide clear direction for success in short-term projects or long-term objectives of the team. 

Ambiguity is torture for employees who are trying to get a job done well and keep customers, co-workers, and managers happy. Great managers will set clear expectations of who will take responsibility for which tasks and when the work will be completed. Providing this clear direction and then allowing employees to take responsibility for the execution shows competent leadership without stepping into micromanagement. 

• Keeping people in the dark about the future of their team, careers, and their evolving role within the organization.

Trust is key to the relationship between any manager and their team. While the future vision and strategic decisions need to be communicated with tact at the appropriate time, employees will become disengaged if they feel they have been misled or kept in the dark about developments within their team or their own career trajectory. Making sure team members understand the big picture for the future direction of their team will help employees feel like they are an active part of organizational changes, not victims of them. Conversations about evolving needs within the team, company, and industry will also help employees pursue worthwhile professional development opportunities, benefitting both company and employee alike.

Employee engagement is the subject of intense research and millions in corporate spending. Yet much of this effort misses the simple fact that most people want to be engaged in their work, but something gets in their way. All too often the obstacle preventing employees from feeling fairly treated, sensing psychological safety, and having a clear vision, is their manager. The irony is that managers are the very people meant to align employee strengths with company needs and foster professional development, thereby allowing employees to become fully engaged in their work. When managers fail to establish environments where employees can follow their natural inclination in being enthusiastically involved with their work, the entire company suffers.