I believe there are three kind of reasons potentially leading to an unsatisfied relationship with the company you work for.
The first kind depends on general treatment; poor premises, no working tools, no training, poor communication, rude or absent relationships, insulting communication, being forced to work under unsafe or harmful conditions etc…
This is for me quite enough a good reason for leaving, as soon as you can.
The second kind of reason is money. If you are not paid what you are worth, or below common market values for your position, or even more seriously, performance reward agreements are not respected (or given unclear)
This is a sufficient reason too for getting out of there, at least if you are not sufficiently rich not to care about money.
Then there’s the third important set of reasons, that refers more closely to the relationship between you and your boss. Think about it, I wrote your boss, not your company, because under this fundamental perspective the company is your boss.
Does management care of you? Let’s dig into the meaning of “caring about you”?
Well, this is a point extremely important to clarify: to me, this means you should be given chances and conditions to grow and learn. In practice, this means that management should SHARE experiences and best practices. When this is not done, normally the excuse is “no time for this”. But this is extremely important. Feedback is fundamental.
Another important point refers to what you are requested to do. Are they giving you just “tasks” (or letting a client doing this) or are they assigning you responsibilities?
Are they encouraging you to improve so that you could perform better, and better and better, by giving you customized action plans, or do they just tell you an impersonal and collective “Thanks” at plenary meetings?
Are they present, so that they can inspire you, teach you and even criticise you when necessary?
I often hear colleagues complaining about the fact they are on their own, no feedback, no praise, nothing at all.
But what about colleagues? Are you left alone also under this perspective, or is management at least trying to work on team building?
As you can see, the third point is very important. My experience is that it is the point to take care about when dealing with employee’s poor satisfaction.
And don’t forget that growing, and taking responsibilities, means measuring yourself on this.
If your people does not feel recognized, engaged, stimulated and appropriately paid, then think about that.
There is a peculiar job which is extremely at risk for the third point: it’s time and material consulting.
As for the first point, well it is easily overcoming: there are so many consulting firms you could switch to , and small firms still applying “slavery” are disappearing.
As for the second point almost same answer: are you really underpaid? Knock company next door. If you are worth more money, you’ll get them.
Let’s face the most interesting point then, the third one.
Here you have two possibilities: you can complain with management, or you can try to manage yourself some way and propose a solution.
In fact, management for time &material is generally pure commercial. Nevertheless, you are literally surrounded by experienced, trained, professional colleagues you can involve in you personal growth journey.
Is it possible to reshape a new paradigm of relationship? Do you really think the guy approving you restaurant bill recipe should be the right one to take care of the “third” part?
Can you accept being inspired, informed by a “peer” in a mutual win- win relationship?
I think so. But one thing will still misses: career. But is that really true? And do you see a solution for this?
Tell me what you think.
