Employee dissatisfaction and workplace stress can have profound effects on any business, but sadly, these are often taken for granted by business owners. If you own a business, of course, you care a lot about its performance in the market. And when you care so much about production and sales, you are likely to have very high standards when it comes to excellence. While there’s nothing wrong with aiming high, you shouldn’t forget about your employees’ condition during periods of growth.
Listed below are some warning signs of a negative atmosphere in the workplace, which can also indicate that you may have been overworking your employees.
#1 – Highly Emotional Employees
Emotion and work are not supposed to mix, but you have to remember that your employees are human beings that are capable of showing their emotions. If you see someone so upset or in tears because of the pressures of the job, you will need to do something about it. Find out what’s going on and listen to what they have to say about whatever it is that’s bothering them.
#2 – Lack of Trust Among Team Members
For a team to be successful, there must be a high degree of trust among your team members. There should be open communication between them, and they need to respect one another as well. A good team isn’t likely to take for granted one another’s feeling and thoughts. So, if your team starts blaming each other or not trusting each other, it’s likely that the pressures from work are affecting their relationship.
#3 – Employee Tardiness
There’s no doubt that employee tardiness can ruin workflow, cause problems with clients, and eventually create conflicts among employees. If anyone in your team is constantly coming to work late, you have to call his or her attention. Ask what the reason is for the tardiness, and decide on a start time that’s acceptable for both parties.
#4 – Work/Life Imbalance
If it seems that your employees are married to their work and they don’t seem to have time for their personal lives, it may be a sign that they’re overloaded with work. You have the power to make things more manageable for them by offering flex hours or telecommuting or perhaps a compressed workweek.
#5 – High Employee Turnover
If you’ve been losing employees continuously and you feel like you’ve been interviewing job candidates for a long time already, it just means that your employees are unhappy with their work in your company. If you want to combat the high turnover rate in your company, you should try doing the following:
- Allow employees to enjoy outings or trips every once in a while.
- Grant more days or weeks off to increase vacation time for your employees.
- Implement a ‘casual’ dress day in the workplace at least once a week.
- Review and enhance your employee compensation packages every year.
- Offer free lunch for workers at least once a week.
Holding a leadership position is no easy task. You have to do everything to ensure the success of your company, but it should not be at the expense of your workers’ well-being. Make it a priority to boost employee morale as this is key to creating an efficient and productive team.