Opinions expressed by Digital Journal contributors are their own.
40 million employees left their jobs after the pandemic, according to the New York Times. Many now regret it.
While the pandemic exacerbated many labor force issues (especially in tech, healthcare, and the service industry), in truth it exposed those as chronic issues and brought them to a tipping point. The long months of virtual work, or no work, gave millions of workers an opportunity to assess long-standing job dissatisfaction and burnout, then opt out.
The highest percentage of those who left the workforce, or changed jobs, were millennials and older Gen Zers (referred to as Zillennials) – a generation of workers who are especially mission-driven. They want clarity on their role in a company and transparent metrics on how to grow their professional career. Most of all, they want to feel valued and don’t want to return, or stay, at companies that don’t offer that kind of clarity.
The Hartford reports that burnout amongst the American worker is still around 61%. Being burned out at work, whatever the reason, leads to disengagement. If you feel burned out and listless in your job, before you jump ship, ask yourself why. And, ask yourself what changes you need to make to change your work environment and realign your mission.
The 7 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself
When we are brought into a company to help stymie turnover that is often tied to organizational confusion and dysfunction, one of the first things we administer is a survey called the “7 Question Engagement and Culture Survey.” The survey (below) is a tool to assess your level of engagement with the company, and whether you have clarity about your role and future in the company.
What we find is that employees who don’t have a clear understanding of things like what they are accountable for, to whom they’re accountable, how their job performance is measured, etc., become disengaged.
According to Gallup, out of 100 million full-time employees nearly 51% are not engaged in what they do and are just collecting a paycheck. For most millennial workers, unlike older generations, a stable paycheck, even a good one, is no longer a benchmark of job satisfaction. In fact, Gallup shows that 45% of millennial workers “say a job that accelerates their professional or career development is ‘very important’ to them.”
From years of experience working with other millennials across professions, we’ve seen that when people can say “Yes” to each of the 7 questions, they are engaged and in the right organization. Those who say “No” or give low marks to one or more of the questions, are disengaged.
Ask yourself the questions, then score your answer based on how closely they align with the statements that follow.
7 Question Engagement and Culture Survey (scored from 1-10)
- Do I belong? I understand and embrace my organization’s core values and I have, or, I can develop the skills my accountability positions demand. I belong.
- Do I believe? I know and believe in my organization’s “why.” I also believe in leadership, my teammates, our strategic direction, and the products or services we provide. I believe.
- Do I understand and embrace what I am accountable for? I understand and embrace the purpose of my job and the roles that make up my job. I know why and what I should be thinking about, and doing. I am accountable.
- Do I understand and embrace how I am measured? I understand and embrace how and why I am measured, and I know what constitutes “a good job.” My measures give me direction and help me to form strategies to fulfill the accountabilities of my job and roles.
- Do I understand and embrace how my organization listens and how I am heard? I understand and embrace how and when my organization listens, and how my opinion is heard. I am heard.
- Do I understand and embrace how I am developed? I understand and embrace my organization’’ development mechanisms and how I am developed; I take an active role in my own development. I am developed.
- Do I understand and embrace how I maintain balance? I understand and embrace my organization’’ balance mechanisms and actively participate in our goal of balance. I am balanced. (Three components of balance: 1. Work-life, 2. Compensation, 3. Health and Wellness.)
Engagement and clarity of purpose are key.
Your Professional Future Should Be Engagement and Purpose
Recently, I asked my daughter why she left one law firm for another, and she told me, “Balance, Dad, balance, and development. There seems to be a glass ceiling here, and there’s no way I can move up, and I’m not being paid what I’m worth. And this other firm has given me a path to the future.” Her former job would’ve likely scored low on the survey.
Think of why you left your last job. Did you feel like you belonged? Did you agree with the company’s mission? Did you have a sustainable work-life balance? What about clarity on your role and future there? Far from just being a tool to assess yourself within the company, the survey is a road map to how you can work going forward. But taking it is only a first step though. Now you need to take the next one: confronting your boss to set new norms or setting expectations and boundaries with your new employer.
If your professional needs aren’t being met, or you are overloaded, your boss or new employer is in the unique position to do something about it. Come up with a plan, not just grievances. Use the survey to not only assess your synchronicity with the company mission, but to think of solutions to the issues you’re having at work. You can also use it to gauge your mental health in terms of work life balance as well, and what that balance will be going forward.
For example, if you scored low on number 3 and 7, then use those survey questions to assess in specific terms what you think your role is at the company and what responsibilities come with that role, and which do not. Maybe over the course of the pandemic you were given more responsibilities than you could handle, and that shouldn’t be all yours – understanding this can help measure what work-life balance you need going forward.
Of course, it’s intimidating to talk to your boss but they are, in many cases, the only one who can help you make the necessary changes to your work environment. The Harvard Business Review suggests practicing how you want to confront your boss, and with what, by discussing it with trusted colleagues, friends, family, or a professional coach or therapist. Figure out your boss’s favored communication method and set up a time to speak with them when both of you are less stressed and emotional.
Take the 7 question survey yourself and use it as a guide to decide if your future is where you are, or if that future is somewhere else.
- Walt Brown
—
Bio
Over the last 15 years, Walt Brown has helped transform the culture and effectiveness of more than 200 organizations across the country through his work helping them create clarity and consistency around Culture, Operations and Structure.
A key discovery of this work has become a belief for Walt and his clients: We believe that an organization is a fiction, a fiction that is only given meaning and power by those who buy-in. If we have 100 people and 51 buy-in to this and the other 49 buy-in to that, then we have two organizations and we have already been divided and we are on our way to being conquered.
Brown teaches that to create one single undivided organization we must have Structural Clarity and Consistency, Operational Clarity and Consistency and Cultural Clarity and Consistency. The combination of these three creates an unstoppable momentum machine.
