UNITED STATES—When was the last time you recall your boss or management at your job actually telling you did a good job on something? Someone posed that question to me and guess what I could NOT give an answer. You know why? I rarely hear it, and that just totally frustrates me to the core. It almost feels like the person at the company just expects people to do things, but at the same time you should acknowledge staff when they do a good job or go above and beyond to ensure the company is profitable or continues to operate without hiccups.
That seemed to be echoed the most during the pandemic: employees feeling underappreciated, and as a result they sought work elsewhere. Just because you’re a boss doesn’t mean you have to ignore or not ‘acknowledge’ what employees who work for you do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. A lot of bosses think if I throw you a bonus that shows that I appreciate you. Giving someone a bonus once or twice a year is nice, but that is not the point.
An employee wants to know and feel as if he or she is valued, if they don’t it makes it that much easier for them to vacate the company when a better opportunity arises. Why is that? No one wants to work at a place where they feel like they don’t exist or the things they do go ignored. Look, I’ve heard this mess time and time and time again, “No one asked you to do that.” Ok, so what, that is what people call initiative. A company should be happy when a staff member is going above and beyond his or her actual duties to do things that help the company thrive.
With that saying, “No one asked you to do that” is a slap in the face, because it’s NOT like anyone at the company told me “not to do it.” That is the problem with so many companies: they don’t realize how much an employee or worker does until that employee or worker is no longer at the company. So many companies learned that the hard way during the pandemic because workers decided, I’ve had enough of this. This job is not for me, I’m not appreciated, I’m not seen, I hear more complaints than compliments which raises that question: why am I even here?
For a lot of people, it’s the fear of leaving something that you have invested so much time in and having to start over again. However, starting over sometimes is a good thing. It gets you to see your worth and realize that perhaps the place where you were working did not appreciate you fully, but this new place of business where you are working actually appreciates your skill set and the tasks or duties you complete for the company. Trust me, I can understand that feeling of investing all this time and then feeling like suddenly you have to start over again there is nothing fun about that at all people.
However, in life you can’t stay somewhere where you feel undervalued, underappreciated and just like a toy that is being tossed around with no regard as to what sacrifices you’ve made that you don’t loudly shout out on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. It is sometimes the simple things, like good job, you did well today, I’m happy to have you part of the team that makes all the difference to bringing up the morale of a worker. Not hearing that and just going thru the motions over and over and over again can become exhausting and it gets to a point, where you just realize, maybe it is time for me to look at my options.
To the bosses out there who don’t show those little signs of appreciation for their workers, you might want to start to do so. We heard all about how the pandemic led to everyone quitting their jobs and looking for fruitful and enjoyable work, a lot of the time it all about how one is being treated at work. Do I exist, am I seen, do I even matter? If workers feel nonexistent it just makes it easier for them to move along when an opportunity arises.
Written By Jason Jones
