When passionate people go silent
Source: Tim McClure
Sometimes you come across a post on social media that just resonates for whatever reason. Yesterday, I came across the quote above and I could instantly relate to it. Our organization is currently going through a major transition whereby we are essentially for all intents and purposes being “acquired” by another organization. We provide services on behalf of the provincial government and a restructure has led to us being absorbed by our funder.
Now, despite the uncertainty it’s not so bad on the surface. However, lately our most passionate have become silent. The reason I believe is quite simple: lack of clarity. It’s been since December of last year that we knew of the transformation however we still have no clarity as what it means for us the employees, especially non-unionized staff. Will our job remain the same? What will be the reporting structure? Will there be layoffs? Severance packages? I could go on and on. Nine months of uncertainty weighs on people. Staff are losing motivation, looking for work elsewhere and are just not engaged in their day-to-day activities.
Once trust is lost and employees lose motivation, it is extremely hard to regain that trust. I fear that at the moment this should be their biggest concern. Hopefully clarity will come sooner or later otherwise the ‘new’ organization certainly has their work cut out for them.
Have any of you experienced when your most passionate have become silent? How did the organization deal with it? If they did. Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
Thanks for reading and please upvote and follow! #steemsquad
It has happened twice to my mother that the company decided to 'restructure' the organization. Meaning, that basically a lot of people will get sacked. People generally, like you said, get less motivated, don't care as much anymore, are not willing to give extra effort - because next thing you know you're jobless.
I don't know if there is any clear solution for when trust has already decreased. I guess, just keep the positive vibes up in the office. Arrange maybe some events or things to do to bond more (if there is budget for it). People might not speak about it right now, but it maybe be brought up during an informal occasion, and that would be the time to take advantage of.
Though, if you didn't inform your employees yet, I would work hard on how to spread the message - because people are not stupid and sense when something's off.
Thanks for some of the suggestions. You are right though, people know when something's off and clearly things are off right now.
Being an employee of a company that was merged into a larger company I totally understand "going silent". I was passionate about my company before the merger. When the merger was announced I was excited to become part of a larger company.
But then the turf wars started. My company was merged into the larger company as a new division. Before the merger was complete, my project was in a hiring mode. Some of the people from the larger company wanted to come to work on my project. This of course would have kept them in the same company but they would have to change divisions. When the managers in the larger company found out that a few of their employees had applied to work on my project, the managers in the larger company threatened the employees . This resulted in the employees declining our offers.
That whole episode royally upset me and totally soured me on the merger. Yes, the company lost my trust. And many years after the merger the company has not earned my trust back.
Good article and true!
Steem on,
Mike
It's interesting you bring up the turf war. What i am noticing now is that people in my organization have started to position themselves to be in a better position once the transition happens. I can definitely see turf wars happening. Good observation. Thanks for the insights.
Interesting idea. Indeed, that's the moment when you most need a leader to stand up and demand that a conversation starts before things go further off track.
Agreed. The sooner that happens, the better IMHO.
Our company has been under-staffed for two years and we continue to lose members at a rate of one every 4 or 5 months. Upper management is in denial and we're struggling with an increased work load and stress. Our office, once a pretty fun place to work, has become quiet from one end of the building to the other ever since our CEO announced some policy changes that have increased competitiveness between sales staff. I can always tell who will be next to hand in their resignation notice since the leavers follow the same steps: arriving early and closing their office door to avoid conversation, fewer contributions at meetings, eating lunches in their office or at their cubicle instead of joining everyone in the lunch room, suddenly taking all of their vacation days (that's an obvious one!) and ending all manner of small talk. By the time an unhappy employee has made a decision to leave and is scoping out other opportunities, he or she has also lost all interest in contributing anything of real value to their work projects or to their work relationships.
I'm sorry to hear that your company is going through such negative times. I agree with your last statement. As soon as people start looking for other work, they become disengaged from their current workplace. It's unfortunate, but I believe that your management is lacking in leadership and unfortunately, it will take them a long time to regain the trust they have lost.