Why Employees Hate their Bosses…and what to do about it.

I’m a Professional Eavesdropper…and I come by it honestly.  I am the eighth child out of 10 kids and was forced to listen to many conversations I never wanted to hear.  Fights, mostly.  I’m familiar with conflict.

I’m also a trained Market Researcher. Which means I have a trained ear for what people say, the meaning in what they don’t say, and the truth that often lies in between.

My team and I have listened in on hundreds, probably thousands, of employee conversations over the past five years and I can tell you why your employees hate you.

The top 3 reasons your employees hate you:

1. You don’t communicate well… “we can’t read your mind.”
2. They think you don’t have a clue about what really goes on in the business…”because if you did, you would address the problems.”
3. They don’t know what you do…“you don’t actually do anything because you’re never here and when you are here, you sit in your office and have meetings…and meetings always mean something bad is going to happen.”

For the most part, employees want to do meaningful work and spend their days getting work done in great companies alongside productive people.

They’re not lazy. They’re not stupid.  They see what goes on in the company. They see what you say and then what you actually do.

In the lunchroom they call you out for hypocrisy – not keeping your word, not being clear in your communications and not even showing up…sometimes for days. Saying one thing…doing another.  Not being consistent and not communicating changes – they hate finding things out later, especially when they have to redo things because you forgot to pass on an important piece of info.

That’s what it looks like from their side of the story.

The surprisingly simple truth is…if you would show them you care, they would care, and they’d forgive you for the reasons they hate you.

In the conversations we’ve had with employees, they tell us over and over again that:

“If he came out of his office and talked to us and showed he cared about us, it would make a big difference.”

“If she even talked to us and let us know what’s going on, we’d feel so much better about working here.”

“If they would get their heads out of their *****, they would see what the real problems are…but they don’t seem to care about it as long as they’re making money.”

“We don’t even know what he does around here…but he came in with a new car last week!”

“When she first started, she was all about the people in this company. Now she only cares about the money that ends up in her pocket.”

This is what your people tell us…over and over again…these direct quotes or things very similar.

They want to know you care and that they are worth your time and effort as people.  They want you to be visible and show up for them. They want to know their work is not in vain, but that it counts for something more than just their paycheck.

They want to know they matter.

This idea of caring is so crazy simple that you might blow off the idea and not do anything different.

You won’t bother to spend the time to improve relationships with your team members until there’s a crisis.

Until productivity suffers…

Client satisfaction goes down…

Deadlines are missed and budgets are blown.

And, along with all of that…profits suffer.

It’s so crazy simple that you’ll resist this idea of caring for your people.

You’ll think it can’t be that easy.

If you took to heart the three main reasons why your employees hate you, you would make changes that would be meaningful. These changes would make your people more loyal and productive.

Research shows that your company has a better bottom line when your people work for a leader who cares.

Three Simple Steps to Make Immediate Changes

There are three easy steps you can take to make immediate changes and see rapid results.

Those nasty employee conversations will quickly turn around into more productive discussions.

Your team will get more work done in less time and productivity will increase overall.

Your people will thrive when they are part of a high-performing team.

And, you will experience greater satisfaction, engagement and maybe get your mojo back.

I’d share these three simple steps with you right now, but you’re not ready yet.

To get you ready, to “put you in the microwave and warm you up,” I need to chat with you so you’ll be in an authentic frame of mind for implementing these three simple steps

On our call, I’ll show you the few quick tweaks you can implement to get fast, immediate results.

You’ll see an immediate lift in morale, you’ll get faster buy-in on projects, and you’ll get quicker resolutions of lingering issues. (P>S> There’s more profitability in this scenario, too…when your employees don’t hate you, they work harder and smarter…for real!)

Don’t just take my word on this. Gallup has spent decades studying how bosses become leaders and how employees become company champions when leaders embrace Leadership Glue and imbed it in their culture.

Curious? Find a spot in my calendar here.

You’ll learn how to make an immediate impact with your team members and change those lunch room conversations from bitch sessions into productive, meaningful, team discussions.

Learn more about North Star Marketing here. www.northstar-m.com

Learn more about Leadership Glue and our programs here. www.leadershipglue.com

Book a 30 minute call here.

Talk soon,
Kae Wagner
North Star Marketing
717-951-6059 (Call/Text)