How to demotivate your people
Last week I got to catch up with John, a former colleague, over lunch. John (not his real name) was telling me about an “interesting” package he received in the mail about a month ago.
Before I tell you about what was in the package, let me tell you a little bit about John.
John is 41. He is married and has two young children. John has worked for Acme Industrial (not the real company name) for ten years. He works hard – sometimes evenings and weekends – and he rarely calls in sick. He does it to please his customers, to make deadlines, and to help his teammates. He doesn’t like to let anyone down. And he likes being helpful. He always gets high ratings in his annual performance reviews.
John is rather unassuming. He gets his work done with little fuss. If you need something done, you know you can count on him. His coworkers consider it “normal” for him to go above and beyond.
Acme runs “lean,” so John doesn’t expect an annual raise. He’s gotten a year-end bonus in the “good years,” though. His teammates appreciate his help. “Thanks John.” “Yeah, thanks John.” Sometimes his manager gives him a shout out in a team meeting for working extra to keep a project on track. This makes him uncomfortable; John doesn’t like drawing attention to himself. But he does like knowing that somebody noticed how hard he worked and what a good job he did. Over the years, John has wondered how much it really mattered.
About a month ago, John received a package from Acme in the mail at home. He was surprised. He had never received a package from them in the ten years he’s worked there. Curious, he opened it. Inside was a piece of paper and a small box. In the box he found a key chain that looked something like this.
Along with the keychain, there was an 8.5 x 11” paper certificate which read,
Congratulations on your 10 years of service to Acme Industrial! We appreciate you and all you do to make Acme a great company. Please accept this gift as a token of our gratitude for your ongoing dedication.
Sam Jones, Chief Human Resources Officer
Acme Industrial
No personalized message. No hand-written signature. No mention of John’s accomplishments. The certificate didn’t even have John’s name on it.
John felt deflated, not important, insulted — and angry. This was how his employer thanked him for ten years of effort? It made him want to quit.
John didn’t quit. Yet. He told me has started looking for a job and has been quietly doing some networking. And he’s cut way back on how much “extra” he’s willing to do for Acme. John still cares about the quality of his work and helping his coworkers, but he won’t be telling any friends or family members to get a job at Acme. And he won’t be staying much longer.
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You don’t have to “motivate” your people. Most people inherently want to do a good job. All you have to do is not “de-motivate” them.
It doesn’t have to be like John's story. You can do better. You can make concrete changes in the way you recognize, appreciate, incentivize, and reward your employees. You can create an environment where your people feel appreciated — where they know that their effort matters.
Study after study shows that happier employees provide a better customer experience, are more productive, stay longer, recruit good people to work for you, share innovative ideas, and promote your organization in the community. The business results of a happier workforce are measurable and undeniable.
Check out our next blog post to learn about a feedback loop you can use to improve the experience for your people so that your best employees will want to stay.
Keep your best people happy and they will reward you with loyalty and productivity.
Contact us to find out how we can help.
