When employees feel slighted, they work less. New research from Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli reveals how even the slightest mistreatment at work can result in lost productivity.
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-wharton-when-employees-feel-slighted-they-work-less
48 Comments
This can be reversed by rewarding your employees.
95% of the studies posted here are just plain common sense.
or they leave.
the only reason my boss with > 50 years experience in the field left, is that her boss, a woman 30 years junior, did not know half of the work required and shifted blame back to my boss for her failures.
She basically said FU and left
Currently experiencing something similar in my workplace. Complete redesign by people who never worked the job. About 15% of staff is on leave.
This tracks with my anecdotal experiences!
Three years ago, my employer convinced me to take on a management position. The deal included a bonus that he said was given to all managers. That every project the company does, he reserves 3% for manager bonuses. I thought this was great because I had been part of many projects start to finish and now I was going to get rewarded for it.
After many months, and several finished projects, I called him out on it. He didn’t have an explanation but during that heated meeting, he said that I was doing too much. So, on that point, he and I agreed.
Now, I play video games and run errands now about 20 hours a week and I actually only do real work for about 2 hours a day.
Like he said, I was doing too much. Now I do as little as possible. If he wants to step up and stand behind his word, then I will step up and continue my previous level of productivity. But, he’s clueless, and doesn’t see any of it. So I continue to enjoy my new outlook on life and career, and he continues to pay me for my full work week.
You see it in police departments in major cities after the ACAB movements around COVID.
We’ve had massive attrition of original employees. New CEO came in and completely changed the culture, took perks away one by one without anything given back, then implemented a bonus structure where most people get 5% and the directors get 25%, after years of company review cycles saying the management doesn’t do anything to help the people on the ground. I start my new job tomorrow.
You people read headlines only
> The study finds that when managers at a national retail chain failed to deliver birthday greetings on time, it resulted in a 50% increase in absenteeism and a reduction of more than two working hours per month.
> birthday greetings
Ive got an end of the year birthday.
The first full calendar year I was there, I chipped in for everyones gift with the only expectation being that when it was my birthday, Id get something back. Two weeks before my birthday, someone said “lets stop doing this, collecting the money is to much of a hassle”.
My boss has since called out everyones birthday throughout the year not once, but twice, skipping mine both times. The first time he “looked at the wrong calendar”. The second time he was out of office. But if he missed anyones birthday he made sure to apologize on the morning call the next chance he got. I got an apology 2 weeks later for one of them.
Ive stopped chipping in for team gifts. I am on the team. I am not part of the team.
Before covid, someone would send a card around for birthdays and have the entire building sign it. Despite my birthday sharing the same day as someone else, I did not get a card.
The same boss went for a coffee run. I, a male, asked for a smoothie. He did not get my drink because it “wasn’t manly enough”.
Theres other slights over the years, including dealing with some of his pro-trump rants. My productivity is way down. I no longer care about my job. If it wasn;t for a few good coworkers, and the job market being bad, Id have left by now.
Yup, like RTO mandates for collaboration….
I work for a company bought by PE in Dec of 2023.
Its been a speed run in papercuts from the new owner, and their desire to squeeze every last cent out of us prior to them just selling us.
I think this is why I couldn’t do the restaurant industry. Sure I was a snotty teenager but having management who were assholes made a vicious cycle of me being a slacker and generally disobeying them until I got tired from both of my serving jobs haha. I’ve only worked professional/academic jobs since and have never had issues with productivity or relationships with my supervisors.
Yeah because i work for you, you dont own me. There is a huge difference.
The beatings will continue until Morale improves!
It makes sense if perceived unfairness reduces motivation rather than effort capacity. Small signals about respect may carry more weight than managers realize.
It’s simple if people don’t feel like they are getting any sort of benefit above the salary they are paid they work as such. Want people to work harder and potentially longer hours, you need to give them a reward this comes in many forms, but personally I find compensation adjustments to be the most meaningful. But even just showing appreciation can have a big benefit.
What do I do at work, if I think there is a carrot I can reach I will put in more effort, if I don’t thinks so then I’ll do a good job, but my willingness to do more outside of some high impacting times is not high. It’s really as simple as that. If effort does not have a meaningful impact to you your better off just doing at least enough to be competent, and look at what stuff you can do additionally with that time that align with our own personal goals.
I just ran into this this morning.
I was trying to explain why our new automated system was much more complex than the old manual system, and my boss quipped “I dont think it is”.
That was months of work. I literally felt a bit weak and had to take a moment to breath under the guise I missed breakfast to gather myself before speaking.
My lunch is about to end and I still feel “tilted” and its definitely lowered my productivity. Good things have happened today but this is stuck in my head.
Had a company basically demote me cause a project ended. I get it, it’s understandable. But the way the went about it, suddenly letting me know I would be getting paid less on. A Friday afternoon before a long weekend without any further discussion.
The remainder of my time there I worked way less and spent time on the clock looking for other work
I’ve never quit a job.
I’ve quit more than one bad boss.
Every single worker in the history of workers knows this is indisputably try. The counter is true too, treat me well and I’ll run through a wall for you.
Yeah, people don’t usually quit their job-jobs, they quit their bosses/managers/hostile colleagues…..or their salary
The whole ‘rate people 1-5 but no one is actually allowed to get more than a 3 unless banging the CEO’ direction HR departments have gone in recently is so diametrically opposed to this finding. It is a system made to make everyone feel unappreciated and like their effort does not matter. I know it kills my productivity whenever I think about it.
Just this morning, I was thinking about how useless attendance point systems are. Research has shown the only thing they do is demotivate employees and force them to work when they absolutely should not be in an office full of people. (eg, when they have the flu)
The only thing attendance points do is piss off the employees, because they can’t do things they need to do or they’ll get fired for missing work.
Consulting firms take away. If only you pay us more and we tell you to slight them harder productivity will go up.
It’s almost like when you are selling your life for money? You treat it like a transaction.
I wonder how this will reach to American and British Business Management ideas which are often against this
Yeah this is super common in academia and research too. Institutions love to brag about “retention of senior talent” then systematically sideline or burn out the exact people who actually know how everything works. You can only watch someone incompetent fail upward and blame you for so long before you just nope out.
So a 4 day work week would actually increase productivity.
So universal healthcare would increase productivity.
So a living wage would increase productivity
Hmmm….?
Crazy that we need science to prove that, yes, when human are not well considered, they don’t work…
“The study finds that when managers at a national retail chain failed to deliver birthday greetings on time, it resulted in a 50% increase in absenteeism and a reduction of more than two working hours per month.”
……… Birthday greetings?
Yep. Just experienced this!
I’ve been an operations manager at a material supplier for two years now. Since then, every employee has quit or retired because of the owner. Now I’m the only employee, running the entire business. Never gotten a penny of a raise (yes I asked), never been able to take a vacation, and I don’t get commission/vested interest in the company. I get all the stress of running a business with none of the benefit.
For the past year I’ve been doing the minimum effort to keep the business afloat because why would I go above and beyond?
It’s a relationship much like every other relationship. Of course people are not going to increase their investment in that relationship by genuinely working harder.
If it’s a one off, or the conflict is resolved in a way that isn’t one sided, or forceful. Which is probably all too rare in a relationship with a clear power differential, like employment, things will eventually level out and go back to “normal.”
A “leader” will continue to communicate and resolve the issue in a way that the “team member” is reinvested.
A “boss” won’t.
Last year I was promised that we would start getting a three and a half percent commission. That would equate to about $8,500 for the last year. We got a $500 pre-tax bonus instead.
Turns out, people have feelings.
I used to fight with project managers about this. Mostly break and lunch times. They’d complain about losing 5 minutes of productivity from each guy times the number of days, like we are plug and play pieces of equipment. I’d always fight back. The guys get done what I need done in a day. They will stay late or push to get something done on time when I ask. I’m not worried about an extra 5-10 minutes at break or lunch. Especially when it’s cold or raining. Push guys to the minute and things will go bad eventually. They will find out how long they have to do things, and make sure everything takes that long.
AI agent managers will be very helpful.
Boss makes a dollar, you make a dime. Poop on company time.
I’m one of those stupid people who tend to work way too hard for too little. One time of a superior bitching about me working from home because of a family crisis that day changed my attitude to silent contempt for him and the company. My attitude productivity and attitude never recovered from that.
Indeed. I feel like I spend more thinking I’m being watched and how I need to “perform”, distracting me from real work.
Another useless study brought to you by the Masters of Wasting Research Funds
Ya don’t say, this is as surprising as bears shitting in the woods. I’ve seen some wastes of time ‘reveals’ but this has to be one of the absolute worst.
I’ve 100% done this. Sometimes it’s the only power you feel you have.
coulda told you that for free
I mean… I agree in premise but this study was about birthday greetings??
The study is about telling people happy birthday…. ?
yea i think employers really forget how you can just make it look like your working often, and they , the employer, are not gonna go truly micro manage to find where the outlying issue of slack is at. because one of the fine parts of being an employer….is enjoy the slack you place on others.
If you’re not paid what you think you should be, extra jobs getting added for the same pay, no one listens to ideas, no one cares and just tells you to do the job………do the job but do it at the pace you feel is fair to you. cause you ultimately get to decide. I promise, if by chance they do micro manage that much, you’ll be better off somewhere else.
when generations feel slighted, they work less.
bad bosses are to blame. this is cope for a lack of leadership. not a lack of sensitivity. production can be the motivation when properly framed and executed.
Does anyone want to explain how **the super fake yet always corporate nice** manager makes you work hard in real life and is your favorite boss? because that is the inevitable outcome of avoiding slight to increase production. a false premise and practice.
When they withhold their capital, we withhold our labor. Seems pretty straightforward