Strategy #5: Get To Grips With The Disengagement Issue

There are all sorts of reasons to look for a different job. Perhaps you want to earn more money, climb higher up the career ladder or completely change the work direction you’re heading in. These are all quite understandable but I think there’s an even better reason for shaking things up and that’s because you’re getting anxious, stressed-out or sick as a direct result of the job you do.

Finding new employment that immediately improves the quality of your life by eliminating the psychological and physical symptoms of bad work is surely one of the best of all the reasons for starting a job hunt. In today’s strategy article I want to talk about workplace disengagement, the underlying cause of some of the most pernicious difficulties that the big majority of employed people experience at some point in their lives.

Whether you currently suffer from what I’m going to discuss or not, understanding the nature of this problem is crucially important if you want to be successful in whatever it is that you do, and solving it forms the basis of the entire Vocation Master job-search programme I deliver.

You might have heard of a company called Gallup which conducts research into a wide range of business-related topics. Many people know them from opinion polling but the bulk of their activity is focused on producing a range of data analytics which aims to help organisations operate more effectively. Amongst other things, they conduct a regular State Of The Global Workplace survey which reveals the attitudes of employees towards the work they do. And here comes the point of this article because in their latest 2023 report they declare that just 2 in 10 workers are engaged with their jobs.

And what does engaged mean in this context? Simply, that this category of workers find meaning in their work, think that their working lives are going well and are hopeful about their working future. That’s a great state of affairs for this minority but here’s the kicker: a whopping 8 in 10 employees see things very differently. They don’t find their work meaningful, they don’t think their working lives are going well and they don’t feel hopeful about their futures. These are the people who are most likely to get sick, feel anxious and become stressed-out as a direct result of the jobs they do.

Gallup goes on to say that workplace stress has historically never been higher, with current levels exceeding even those reported at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020. Plenty of other reliable research confirms this grim situation for employees around the world, and I go into this in some detail in my complete Job Search Masterclass.

If you’re interested in investigating the supporting data in more detail, you can follow this link to the Gallup report that I’m referring to:

https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx

Now, before I give you my analysis of this situation, let’s take a brief pause and consider whether such a low level of employee engagement really matters. After all, this is work that we’re talking about and who says that we should necessarily enjoy our jobs? Why is disengagement a problem in the first place? Isn’t it best to accept things for what they are, keep our heads down and just get on with all the downsides that are part and parcel of a standard working life?

Well, if you subscribe to this opinion, I have two preliminary things to say about taking this kind of fatalistic view of your work. First of all, it might not be a serious issue if it weren’t for the hugely negative impact on your mental and physical health if you do a job that doesn’t engage you in any significant way. I’ll talk about this in more detail in a moment. And second, I recognise that many people don’t see disengagement as enough of a problem to be motivated to do anything about it, or because they don’t think there’s a viable solution that’s available to them.  

A lot of this comes down to your attitude to work and about the mechanics of the particular job you do. It also concerns the way you deal with problem-solving. I’ve made this point in previous articles, and it’s something I’ll come back to in future ones, but your mindset is hugely important in deciding if you’re likely to be part of my core audience for the video and audio courses, personal coaching and face-to-face training seminars that I deliver. If you genuinely don’t see any problem with the work you do, whether that concerns factors connected to disengagement or any of the other job-hunting difficulties that I address, whatever I say probably won’t make any difference to you.

The same applies if you’re aware of these problems but aren’t inclined to investigate the available solutions, or if you’re not prepared to consider alternative ways of managing your career which could radically improve your wellbeing, work prospects and earning potential. And that’s fine because I want to be straight with you.

I’m not in the business of persuading unwilling people to do anything they’re resistant to, and this especially applies to anyone who’s got a fixed mindset about work rather than a growth one. For everyone else, here’s the nub of the problem.

The 80% of employees who are negatively engaged with their work are significantly more susceptible to stress, anxiety and sickness than the 20% who are positively engaged with their jobs. In the worst cases, these employees can anticipate a curtailed lifespan. Plenty of high-quality research bears testimony to this, and you can find references to this data on my website. The bottom line is that disengagement is one of the biggest challenges to the physical and mental health of any employed person and my grand aim is to help as many of the 80% join the 20% as quickly and effectively as possible.

So, how do you know if you’re disengaged from your work? Lots of employees will be painfully aware of a lack of engagement, whether they use this word to describe their feelings or not, because they have a persistent and generally negative attitude towards their jobs. Others might be vaguely aware of the possibility of being disengaged, or even in complete denial of reality in some cases. In most regards, this is a tough aspect of work to confront so I don’t want to be too critical of anyone who’s struggling to accept that they might be one of the 80%.

So, let’s get specific with some of the symptoms of disengagement. Consider your reaction to the following statements, which are all taken straight from the Gallup State Of The Global Workplace report, by the way.

• I find myself watching the clock tick by
• I’m living for the weekend
• I think that work is just a pay check

If you find yourself thinking any of these things on a regular basis, the chances are that disengagement is a major feature of your work. These feelings are symptomatic of a problematic working style for the simple reason that negative attitudes about your job suggest that there’s a significant mismatch between what you need at a human level and what your work delivers. As I’ve mentioned, lots of people baulk at accepting this scenario for a whole range of reasons, or they minimise the significance of disengagement in their work, but that’s not to deny its existence. I sincerely hope you’re part of the 20% but the truth of the matter is that you’re far more likely to be part of the 80%.

If you suspect that you might be one of the 8 in 10, this is a situation that should concern you. Disengaged workers are more liable to suffer low levels of personal and professional wellbeing than engaged ones. They’re statistically more likely to work for organisations that employ ineffective managers who impose a command and control leadership style. They’re less able to assert agency over their workplace decisions and actions. All of these aspects of work seriously inhibit employees’ on-the-job performance and heavily mitigate against their career success. 

This is only a very brief introduction to the vital area of psychology and practice of employment, and with engagement with work in particular. I recommend you look at my full-length Job Search Masterclass if you want to learn more about it.

But here’s the good news. There’s a simple solution to disengagement that’s readily available to you, and that’s what my Vocation Master programme addresses head-on. This series of strategy articles gives an outline of what to do and how to do it, for example. If you want to take things further, I recommend you visit vocationmaster.com for more information and access to my training courses, videos and much more besides.

Neil Grant, Vocation Master

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about the issues I raise here, I invite you to contact me personally. Please get in touch via LinkedIn;

LinkedIn/VocationMaster