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The Outdated Workplace

Marc Bradburry II

Big Bearded Ginger

发布日期: 2023年6月19日

Over the last few decades, the relationship between employer and employee has changed dramatically and the world has seen a dramatic increase in employee dissatisfaction. Most media outlets are filled with content regarding people’s dissatisfaction with their workplace, so much so, social movements like “Quiet Quitting” have become prevalent in the modern workplace. Barry Schwartz’s article “Rethinking Work” makes the compelling argument that pay is not the reason people are unhappy with their jobs, it is what people are doing, or not doing, at their jobs that is making them unhappy. ?The article's main claim that the lack of challenging, engaging, and meaningful work in most people’s workplaces has led to employee dissatisfaction, regardless of pay, is an accurate evaluation of the current workforce because research shows many people are unhappy with their jobs, they do want more meaningful work, and they want to work for employers who engage and challenge them.

Research shows people are unhappy with their jobs. A 2014 Gallup poll showed that 51.5% of employees were not engaged and 17.5% were actively disengaged from their jobs. (Adkins, A. 2015) In 2022, another Gallup poll showed similar results, 52% non-engagement, and 18% active disengagement and for most of the last two decades, less than one-third of the workforce has been engaged except for its peak, which was at 37% engagement in 2019. (Harter, J. 2023) Even at the peak of employee engagement, there was still 63% disengagement, and this phenomenon can be referred to as Quiet Quitting; “This is?the trend where employees put in a minimal amount of effort just to get through the workday.” (Vengapally, M. 2023) Maybe it is just human nature to dislike work, Barry Schwartz felt like Adam Smith, who wrote “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776, thought that people were naturally lazy and Smith’s thoughts on people and work have been influential in creating systems that minimize the need for skill and close attention in the workplace. Micromanagement and consistent checks based solely on performance and not substance have taken the opportunity for meaningful work to be done. Work has been structured to compensate for the degradation of trust, expectations, and overall relationship between employee and employer. Many people work with the perception that what they do in the workplace is just for the profit of the company and to fill the pockets of the thankless C-suite staff who make their workplaces unfulfilling. Perhaps the degradation of the employer-employee relationship plus this cynical and pessimistic way of approaching work is making people dissatisfied with their work. Opposing views may argue that work is not supposed to be personally rewarding and the only reward needed for work is a paycheck, but in the modern era of exposed personal lives, a simple paycheck is not enough of a tradeoff for the time invested.

Why do people care more about meaningful work than money? Could it be the inception of social media and the very public display of people’s lives pushing the need to want to do something worth sharing with their network? In Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why”, a theory is presented that a paycheck is a consequence of work but not why people work, the why is much deeper and prophetic than just a paycheck. Barry Schwartz posited that people want work that is challenging, engaging, and provides opportunities to learn and grow. He cited a Yale study that found custodians do work beyond their job duties for no additional pay to assist patients and their families because it gave them purpose and another study at Wharton found students calling for contributions for scholarships increased 171% after hearing how that scholarship changed a graduate’s life. It could also be the high amounts of dopamine activities newer generations are raised with, growing up in a world with instant gratification and technology that delivers lightning-fast results has conditioned the brain to need more positive stimuli to receive the same amount of satisfaction compared to someone in the same position decades ago. Regardless of the cause, it is clear workers are actively seeking more meaningful work and the solution for the employer may be challenging and engaging with their employees more.

People want to work for employers who engage and challenge them. The workplace has evolved past the conventional clock-in clock-out workday, people want to go home feeling like they’ve accomplished something worthy of their efforts. Employers often wish that their employees did more than the minimum, they would like to see their employees be more engaged and be more productive. How much effort are employers putting towards these goals or are they just expecting different results from the same practices? With such high numbers of employee disengagement and job dissatisfaction, a safe assumption would be, not enough effort is being put towards employee engagement, if at all. The fear is that effort put towards engagement with the employee may not bring desired results or they tried and were unable to maintain engagement because it was a one-time event versus a sustainable long-term change. Change takes constant work from the employer to maintain, so what is the motivation for an employer to implement change? A very motivating reason is that meaningful work can also improve a company’s bottom line. Several studies confirm this statement, like a Harvard study that found “Workplaces that offered employees work that was challenging, engaging, and meaningful, … were more profitable…” (Pfeffer, J. 1998.) and Barry Schwartz concluded, “When employees have work that they want to do, they are happier. And when they are happier, their work is better, as is the company’s bottom line.”. If challenge and engagement benefit both the employee and the employer, why has the workplace not evolved to achieve this?

Maybe it truly is time to rethink work, outdated workplace practices and approaches are hindering both the employee and employer. While in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution, perhaps not only technology has advanced but also the work culture and workforce, both employer and employee, need to rethink how work gets done. With such high demand for employees and unprecedented turnover, companies may need to find more meaningful and impactful ways to accomplish work to maintain a healthy workforce or face obsoletion. Employees need to communicate and manage expectations with employers to develop a more fulfilling workplace. It is time to make the workplace a more rewarding place to increase the happiness and health of employees by offering meaningful work through active engagement from employers. It is the responsibility of employees to voice their constructive concerns and it is in the best interest of the employers to adapt and change the workplace based on these inputs. If the same way of doing work is not working, maybe it is not the people hired that need to change but the outdated workplace.

Works Cited

Adkins, A. (2015). Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx