What Makes an Employee Disgruntled? Poor Management Decisions

A Look at Common Management Issues that Lead to Job Dissatisfaction in the Workforce

If you read the newspaper or watch the news a lot, you hear this term frequently about a company being accused of some misdeed by "a disgruntled former employee." Have you ever wondered who this disgruntled former employee is? Were they born disgruntled or did something happen to make them dissatisfied with their job? Since this person is referred to so much in business reports, it might be interesting to know a little more about who this disgruntled former employee is. To be clear, employees are now also called "associates," so feel free to insert the term "disgruntled former associate" as well as "disgruntled former worker" in place of "disgruntled former employee."

As someone who has been in the workforce for many years, I have had the opportunity to work with many people who became disgruntled former employees. While it is true some of these employees did not actually want to work, or were under the impression merchandise didn't have to be paid for, these are not the disgruntled former workers I am talking about. Most of the disgruntled former employees I have met had reasons to be disgruntled and to leave their employment.

Poor Managers

I have dealt with this issue in a companion article: What Makes an Employee Disgruntled? Poor Management Types. Poor managers rank as the number one reason people become dissatisfied with their jobs. ⁽¹⁾

Inadequate Pay

Inadequate compensation is a top reason employees loose their enthusiasm for a job, become disgruntled, and make the decision to leave. Hiring inexperienced new workers in at salaries equal to or greater than what experienced workers are making is a big cause for employee dissatisfaction. So is giving raises to your favorite employees while the office work horses get a pittance. Raises should be based upon personal performance, not tenure, favoritism, or nepotism. Raises should only be a "team" effort if you are the manager of the team and responible for the entire team.

Discrimination