The Recession Takes Toll on Relationship with Bosses
From the Eye on the Workforce Blog
by Joe Wynne
Workforce management is a key part of project success, but project managers often find it difficult to get trustworthy information on what really works. From interpersonal interactions to big workforce issues we'll look the latest research and proven techniques to find the most effective solutions for your projects.
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More evidence comes in related to worker dissatisfaction - and now the recession is a clear contributor. Spherion reports (pdf) that 45% of workers who responded said their relationship with their boss has been weakened and 74% of those said that the recession was to blame.
When the details are checked, it presents a rather ugly picture.
Here's what respondents said bosses were doing:
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Bosses were not helping workers with their career development
-
Bosses were not open about job security
Those behaviors were balanced (toward evil) by what the bosses were doing:
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Taking credit for workers' work
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Throwing workers under the bus to save themselves
Needless to say, this is yet another reason why workers are unhappy. A third say they are somewhat or very unsatisfied with their relationship with their boss. A little less than half do not feel safe enough to discuss sensitive issues with their bosses.
None of this is good news. Managers should be extending an extra effort to maintain a positive atmosphere in this recessionary environment.
You, as a manager, must have engaged workers to meet business or project objectives. Much has been written about how to increase engagement within this blog (very much actually), but worker dissatisfaction is being pumped up from many sources and now is a time for you to press hard to maintain a culture where workers will give their best effort. Consider the results of this survey to be on your "Don’t Do list."
What do you think?
Are bosses having to "dig in" in these tough times to keep their positions? Is this affecting their relationship with employees?
Are bosses trying to save themselves in this tough environment at the expense of their employees?
What have you experienced?
Posted on: November 03, 2010 04:48 PM |
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Comments (4)
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Josh Nankivel
Engineering Project Manager| Apple
Sioux Falls, Sd, United States
Scary. Reminds me of
Deming's 8th point.
It is absolutely critical that managers use this as an opportunity to win even more trust from their teams, not less. People will start jumping ship very quickly if they have any opportunity to do so....that means you'll probably lose your
best performers to other organizations!
-Josh
pmStudent e-Learning
Stan Yanakiev
Customer Project Manager - IT| Hewlett-Packard
Sofia, Bulgaria
I think it is about management culture. While bosses think of themselves as bosses it will be so. They should be supporting their teams instead as agile management methodologies point out.
 | farmbichoun |
Since the recession there is no smile no communication between superior and their staff to keep the atmosphere friendly like before. I think most of bosses getting arrogant & they change as weather.
I believe positive attitude at work can bring joy and good think to build strategy & to achieve or win target...
face the reality & forget recession and don't show your self that you are user.
Bradley Norton
Program Manager| Abbott Laboratories
Libertyville, Il, United States
Joe,
I have seen this take hold at many levels. From comments by leadership in organizations indicating people should be thankful they have a job, to watching departments be outsourced to the point that there is no time for anybody to go to a training seminar, or contribute to the professional community.
I personally had to pull back staff members from going on training because of the quantity of work and the lack of any backup. This goes against everything I have tried to foster during my 14 years as a manager. Hopefully, as the recession starts to loosen it's grip, I will have more opportunities to take the breaks needed to allow training programs to move through the department.
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