Dealing with Workplace Fustration

1-How do you describe the workplace frustration and what can be the causes and manifestations?of such frustration?

Reality is that, frustration is something that everyone experiences from time to time. Nurturing your capacity to think clearly by understanding your sentiments and emotions before they spiral out of control is the key.

Workplace frustration can be termed as whatever the situation, which makes someone feel uncomfortable while working or hamper the productivity. Majorly this can be because of following reasons:

·?????? High level of expectation from the role, by self or by manager.

·?????? Workplace Environment/ Organization Culture.

·?????? Stretched Targets.

·?????? Due to unavailability of required resources to perform a particular Tasks.

·?????? Due to Supervisor’s behavior – Over demanding/ Micro Managers.

·?????? Hostile Work Environment.

·?????? Negative competition among the Teams and Colleagues.

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If somebody is facing frustration kind of situation, there are some clues by which we may identify the person and can take corrective/preventive actions to correct the situation, like, if

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·?????? Sudden drop in productivity of an individual.

·?????? Drop in active participation level in various meetings or Brain Storming Sessions.

·?????? Employee goes in to his/her Comfort Zone and do not want to take challenges.

·?????? Lack of initiatives.

·?????? Absenteeism (Authorized & Unauthorized both kind) ?

·?????? Sometime the employee feeling frustrated because of any reason, may overreact to a very normal situation as well.

·?????? Keeping himself/herself in aloof kind of an environment.

·?????? Avoid any Team Celebration/ activity.

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When it comes to dealing with Workplace frustration cases, Manager need to be more proactive in identification of all above mentioned pre-signs of workplace frustration and should be well equipped to convert them in to positive pressure kind of situation.

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We all know that some sort of pressure in our work life is required to break the boundaries/comfort zone, we have set for ourselves, but it doesn’t mean that this pressure should get converted in the frustration.?

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2-Are managers skilled enough to identify this negativity among employees and handle it? If not, what can be done by organizations in this direction?

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Many a times we observe that managers in many organizations doesn’t know their team well or Team doesn’t trust them. Until and unless you don’t know your team well, or your team doesn’t trust you, they will not open up with you. In this type of situation, a slightest of issue can lead to a Workplace frustration.

In present scenario, still the criteria of promotion in many organizations majorly depends upon the “Present performance in current Role” of an incumbent, we as an organization/ HR, tend to forget to assess the candidate eligible for promotion on “People Skills”, whether the candidate can handle the team well/ will he be a good leader for the team or will be limited to Tasks master only.

If we talk in real sense, our present performance appraisal system/ eligibility criteria for Role elevation is limited towards generating a greater number of Task Masters and Micro Managers only, but somewhere we are failing in producing more Situational Leaders, and People Developers. We have not yet enough focus on potential development/ assessment of our employees.?

If we really want to curb the Workplace frustration kind of situation in our organization, this is high time for us to develop more People Managers, rather than Task Masters, organizations must have a place for fail, learn and Grow kind of environment. Then only employee will have greater trust on organization, on their manager and will give their 100% to the organizational success rather than feeling frustrated and updating their Resumes.

Workplace Frustration results in to a high Attrition of employees in any organization. We have seen many organizations spending lakhs and lakhs of rupees on conducting the Study “Why People are leaving the organization”, we as an HR Professionals need to change our thinking pattern and focus should be on “Why the People are staying with the organization and what all steps or precautionary measures we can take in a close coordination with Business so that People Stay with us and Work happily”.? ????

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3-??What do you think whether organization’s policies alone are responsible for workplace frustration or individual employee behavior and attitude??also plays the catalyst role?

Organizations Policies plays an important role in having a disciplined and uniform approach for all the employees. Once an employee is married to an organization, he/she must respect the culture of that family/organization.

Many progressive organizations are Transforming/modernizing their People Policies, take the feedback of what are the best practices of new Joiners past organization. So, it will be wrong to say that Policies alone are responsible for Workplace Frustration, individual employee’s behaviour/ attitude plays an important role in getting adaptable in the new role/ environment.??

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4- How?frustration among employees should be handled?

First of all, we need to identify the factors contributing to the Workplace frustration in any organization, then we may take following steps to handle the Workplace Frustration:

·?????? Analyze the situation: One must analyze the situation/ reasons for frustration among employees, whether it widely spread or limited to a category of employees only, then actions can be initiated accordingly.

·?????? Look for the Brighter side: What we call workplace frustration can be a project base/ short term performance pressure as well. When the Project is over performance pressure will also convert in achievement.

·?????? Create communication channels: Creating a various formal and informal channel of communication will help in reducing the level of frustrations among the employees, as employees will feel heard.

·?????? Frequently Meet the new joiners: Often it is observed that high level of frustration exist with in either new joiner/ more experience employee working with the same organization, so meeting and addressing the concerns of employees on a fixed frequency in a formal and informal way will lead to satisfied and happier workplace.

5-Any tips for individual employee to take notice of his growing frustration and manage the same before it becomes too late?

·?????? Communication, Communication and Open communication is the only way, by which it can be reduced. Share it with your supervisor, Boss, colleagues whom you trust more.

·?????? Work Life Balance is very important, please check, is there any misalignment? and cure it before it gets converted in to frustration.

·?????? Completing the tasks within the allotted time period may also help in being more productive, rather than sitting late in the office and feeling frustrated. Sitting late in office often gives a feeling of overburdened and frustration.

·?????? Identify the areas of improvements or new initiatives in life like: You may like to change your morning routine, by including, Meditation, Exercise time, Reading, Tea with family, generally I prefer to do.

·?????? Create a networking outside the work premises as well, so that if you want to engage yourself with fun activities, this will help in reducing the stress level.

·?????? You must focus on the skills and expertise you have, and keep on sharpening it.

·?????? Be flexible for small-small changes in your personal/professional life.???

?6- What effective role HR can play??in keeping the workplace free from frustration?

·?????? Generate a greater number of people managers.

·?????? With the change in designation/ Role elevation, HR need to be more proactive in enhancing the competencies of an individual, more Role based Behavioural competencies requirements.

·?????? Create an open Platforms for Communication and Trust within the organization so that the employees should feel empower to come and share their challenges before they get convert in to frustration.?

It’s difficult to avoid frustration in life, however you can learn to manage it efficiently. Managing feelings of frustration, like so many other aspects of life, isn't always easy, though it is well worth it in the end.

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About the Author

Bhaskar Dharival is Heading HR & Administration Function for World’s 4th Largest Generic Pharmaceutical Company, SUN Pharma, Halol, Vadodara Plant.