Why are some employees demotivated?

For Managers only.

Suppose you have two employees with the same title, years of experience, salary, and benefits. However, one employee is motivated, and the other is not, and you cannot understand the reason. Let me share with you some points that might help us to understand why.

Reason 1: Social vs. Official

- If your car breakdown on the road and you have asked someone to support pushing the car to the roadside, most people will help you.

- If your car breakdown on the road and you have asked someone to support pushing the car to the roadside for 1$, most people might not help you.

Why is the difference in reaction? As the writer mentioned below, it’s because of money. Some people are ready to support as they are enjoying helping. However, if money is involved, it is no longer support; it’s a paid task “official.”

Unconsciously, employees are doing the same concept in many cases. An employee has noticed a lot of pressure on the manager to close the project before a short deadline. The employee decided to stay back and provide extra mile support to the manager, expecting nothing in return. However, this manager on the next day communicated that employee is late coming to work. In such a case, the Manager has transformed this employee from someone who readies to do the extra mile to someone who will follow the book, come and leave on time, and never provide the extra miles any longer. "Of course, if this is repetitive."

In another example by the writer, a small remote school, the principal has requested parents not to be late in picking up children as school staff wanted to go home on time to their families, and at the time average of 95% of parents was coming on time. The principal has decided to add late payment fees to push this 5% late to come on time. However, parents’ reaction was shocking to him. After applying the late fees, the percentage of parents coming on time dropped to 70% as it’s become “official” parents didn’t care about the late fees and it becomes a paid service and not humble request.

Reason 2: Money talks

Money talks, in the previous example, people were ready to support with no money. However, when you have decided to pay 1$ for support, the majority refused to do so. If you decided to pay 100$ instead of 1$, most properly, people might provide the required support.

The outcome here, If you decided to pay for service, it’s always better to give a value that equal to or over the value of the service.

Reason 3: It's normal

The employee who has concerns, if you as Manager was able to resolve it, your expectation is if you resolve these issues, the employee will be highly motivated. However, you have noticed that the employee is still not.

Let us look at it from a different point of view:

Money: If an employee is paid less, then the market will not be motivated. If you as a Manager decided to increase him/her to match the market value, do not expect the employee to be motivated; he/she will be just ok as his/she expects to meet the market salary, which should be the normal pay.

Title: If the employee title is lower than his duties and responsibilities, if you as Manager have decided to correct the title to match the employee’s duties and responsibilities, do not expect the employee to be motivated; he/she will be just ok. As his/her expectation is to meet the title that matches his duties and responsibilities.

Work condition: If the work condition or environment is friendly and comfortable facilities are provided, the employee will not be motivated as this should be the normal standard for the normal work environment. However, if these are not available, for sure, the employee will not be motivated.

If a company has increased employee salary from minimal to met with market OR change the title to match the responsibility OR improve the office facilities to the normal standard, this will not make employee motivated as this is normal and standard, and it’s not employees fault that the company wasn’t providing that initially. Also, keep in mind that the employee will be demotivated by not providing all of that and will not continue in the organization or will not give the company 100%.

Over or undervalue: Dealing with employees not based on performance but personal relation, power, or function.

If a company overvalue employees due to their connection, power, or personal relations with others, that pushes others to be demotivated, and it isn’t easy to fix it in the short run. Also, some companies value the revenue-generating functions over non-revenue functions, and sometimes companies call them wrongly cost functions. Not understanding the value of non-revenue generating functions and not treating employees in different functions equally creates molds within the organization. You will not feel it as a start. Still, it will grow fast as this is a perfect environment for the molds, and if this were not noticed and corrected fast, you would not be able to fix it later.

Comparison: If a Manager using the comparison between companies, industries, or functions to push employees to accept a condition or decision, this creates mental health issue as it adds overpressure to employees, and as a result, employees will immediately feel unsafe and will start looking for another job, and until then, you will not get 100% of these employees if this manager behavior continue.

This article is inspired by Daring Greatly by Brene Brown & Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.