How to Combat Disappointment in the Work Place

8/10/2019 How to Combat Disappointment in the Work Place

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APEX B U S I N E SS A N D M A N A G E M E N T C O N S U L T A N T S L T D


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How to

Combat

Disappointment

In the work Place

Hector Chapa Sikazwe, 2015

Key words

Disappointment, work place, CV, Soft skills, hard Skills, Employable skills, transferable skills, 360

degrees, appraisal, peers, teambuilding, preparation, competition, inertia, Brain drain, Education,

People person, departments, organizations, Employee, Employer.


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Introduction

Disappointment is something we all deal with at different times in our lives. When our vision for the

future doesnt seem reachable, it is easy to be disillusioned. An employee who perceives their

employment future is not well remunerated or appreciated will always become disruptive,

unproductive and eventually self-destruct until given the sack.

Employees bring their expectations to work with them every day. They may expect their hard work

to be rewarded with a promotion or salary raise and experience sheer frustration when they dont

feel they were being adequately rewarded. They may have high expectations of themselves and they

end up taking on more than they can handle. They may even expect their co-workers to behave in a

certain way and get annoyed with their employers when their peers seem to receive preferential

treatment in terms of promotion and direct career advancement compared to themselves.

It is important to note that when employees let their expectations define their experience, they are

far more likely to be disappointed, unhappy, and they may begin to resent those around them and

become unduly irritable and unfriendly. Often the situation is not as bad as they feel, itsjust different

from their expectations. Its mostly about perception coupled with misplaced self-expectations in

the job they took up in the first place.

Gone are the days when an employee relied solely on their educational qualifications to gain, sustain

and forever maintain the same job for long periods of time. Having hard skillsis desirable, but no

longer is the hook on which employees can hang their entire career forever as the work place is

changing rapidly, being filled with innovative, bubbly and influential jacks of all tradesemployees

that are easier to work with as they represent the Organisation better on the competitive market.


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Wrong Expectations

Employees come into the work place with a warped understanding of their role in the new

organisation. Primarily, employees enter the work place with the notion that the organisation owes

them a wage for services rendered without understanding that the organisation exists exclusively

to propagate its existence with or without specific employees on board. Once an employee

understands this concept, it becomes a lot easier to make oneself relevant and more needed than

the other employees who think that organizations owes them a life. Obviously, after an employee is

laid off, declared redundant or even sacked, the organisation continues to exist indifferently.

Its also important to remember that career development should focus on helping organizations

achieve their strategic goals.(CIPD/Halogen Employee Outlooksurvey, 2014)

One in three employees (33%) report that their career progression to date has failed to meet their

expectations, according to the latest CIPD/Halogen Employee Outlooksurvey. The survey of over

2,500 employees published by the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, in

partnership with Halogen Software, also found that more than a quarter (28%) of employees are

either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the level of career training and development offered by

their current employer.

The reason the statistics show such an outlook indicates a serious misconception that employees

have that they are worth more than their employers quantify them. The major cause of this problem

comes from media and unfortunate institutionalized misconception that the organizationstop brass

take the major chunk of the wealth of the organisation s benefits through higher salaries, pecks and

benefits whilst the actual workers carry only the crumbs.


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Unwarranted peer competition seems to be encouraged for the scarce jobs that can be aspired for by

employees. Instead of working together to improve the organisations corporate benefit, employees

are caught up fighting and clawing at each other at the expense of corporate organisation benefit. As

long as individual goals do not align with the corporate organisations goals, most employees are

left in a state of insecurity, unfulfilled and in most cases disappointment as they watch their peers

climb the ladder of success (Sikazwe, 2003). The level of selfishness and self-delusion in employees

to think they are better than the organisation appreciates themhas for decades been the one major

source of self-destruction to many careers.

Cultural changes in work places

Long gone are the days when a high performing employee was content to stay at a particular

company for more than three years. Many employees dont expect to stay at one organisation for

more than two years. In tandem with this phenomenon, advancements in technology,

communications, and global travel opportunities have contributed to these changing attitudes by

making the world a smaller place, motivating todays professionals to pursue exciting opportunities

outside their comfort zones, thus creating insecurities not only for themselves but for their own

employers. Most employers are unwilling to invest in an employee who exhibits traits of someone

who is seemingly Job-window-watchingand is most likely just waiting for opportunities to jump

ship. Such an employee is rarely considered for promotion nor does the organisation invest serious

training opportunities for fear of training the individual for a competitor just around the corner.


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Loyalty still reigns

The unwritten law of employers requires an employee to be loyal towards his employer. This means

that an employee must:

(a)be honest with his employer while he works for him

(b)use good judgment in his role as an employee

(c)put the interests of his employer above his own

(d)protect confidential information

The duty of loyalty is based on the idea that an employer should be able to trust an employee both

at work and outside the workplace. Such an employee is most likely going to receive preferential

treatment and exceptional consideration whenever promotion options surface. Most loyal employees

somehow seem to know where the staircase to promotion is located and this is in fact a power

knowledge. Jealous or competing employees regard such a trait in a workmate as a sell-out or even

a boot licker.No matter what names these employees are called, such employees get the desired

results as shown in the speed of ascension on the career ladder or stairway ascension.

It is expected for an employer to feel that an employee must respect his duty of loyalty regardless

of the industry he works in or position he occupies. However, if an employee has heavy

responsibilities within a company, such as a management position, his duty to be loyal may even

become greater and more recognizable compared to when located in lower ranks. It is not strange

that employers still expect a former employee to still be loyal to his former employer even when

going to work for a Competitor. Employers are reluctant to invest money in staff that seem likely to

leave them within a short period. They want employees to be loyal at work for their company and

grow with them as their business grows. Incidentally, having a busy CV may in fact work against


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ones career progression. A busy CVindicates that an employee does not hold down a job long

enough to develop organisations cultures and as such could not be trusted with long term plans if

the employing organisation is in an industry where lengthy of employment is vital to continuity of

projects. As mentioned, employers might have concerns about an employees loyalty at work if:

(a)The employee has changed jobs frequently

(b)The employee is in his 20's or younger

(c)Paradoxically if the employee lacks work experience by having held only one job with no

progression for lengthy period of time without promotion

(d)Employees that are over qualified for the job they are applying for

In a nutshell, most employers want staff that they can nurture or have shown potential to innovate

and progress with established stability traits. This means they want to train them, building on their

skills and their abilities so that they perform well for the company now and in the future. Be mindful

that this nurturing can be quite expensive with regular appraisals, Training sessions with consultants,

away days, team building sessions etc. Employers pay for those employees they see as promising

and loyal because they see investing in such an employees skills as ultimately an investment for the

organisation and the future of the corporation. Employers are aware that employee's also want to be

nurtured and valued and not just paid for their services as compensation.

Transferable Skills

Investing in specific employees is a trending vital strategy by employers as they evaluate the

industry, and this is being compounded by the skills gap problem that regularly makes the headlines.

Whether its cuts in government education funding that impact certain subjects, a lack of students


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interest in studying a particular field, or an aging industry (with an aging workforce to match), some

needed skills are hard to replace, and a with skills shift moving from manufacturing to services, it

is making it particularly painful when skilled employees leave for new opportunities elsewhere.

Transferable skills are skills and abilities that are relevant and helpful across different areas of

life: socially, professionally and at school. They are really what would be called portable skills.

Employees who have transferable skillsare finding it easier to get a job than those who are simply

looking for any job. Here is the secret: making oneself to be endowed with transferable skills

makes one properly valued and marketable. For many people today, a specific career for life is no

longer an option. Most employees will keep swapping jobs with a variety of employers and move

regularly across different employment sectors through their working life because of possessing

transferableskills that make them marketable in a variety of industries.

In the business world, employees possessing transferable skills are rarely out of employment

because the demand for their services are rising exponentially as organizations re-orient their

innovative processes to create competitive advantages.

Most employees usually think about their transferable skillsonly when applying for a job or when

thinking about a career change. Unfortunately, employers often look for people who can

demonstrate a good set of transferable skills that can be used acros s departments rather than

limiting employees to be stuck in specific departments indefinitely.

Some employees do not even know or are unaware that they actually possess transferable skills

only that they have never really explored their own abilities. The good news is that most employees

already have one skill or another that they developed when they have been going through life, when

they were at school, perhaps at university, at home and in their social life, as well as for some,


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through specific involvement or experience in the work-place.

Identify and flaunt your Skills

It is important that employees are able to identify and give examples of their core transferable

skillsthat they have developed in life. This will go a long way to persuading prospective employers

that they are right for the job. Not to be ignored, all skills and abilities can be transferable, depending

on where they are being transferred to and from.

When applying for a job, job seekers should remember, that the type of transferable skills they

highlight in a letter of application or in their CV or rsum should be related to the position for which

they are applying and should be able to cite examples easily when prompted during job interviews

or employment appraisals that are now common in work places where the 360 degrees appraisal

system1 is used. Most organizations are now promoting the 360 degrees appraisal system as it

provides a wider appreciation of the employees abilities. The rationale is that, in more complex

organizations, managers may not always fully understand the contribution of the people they manage

as they may be part of many different teams and engage in autonomous or semi-autonomous

relationships with customers or colleagues. There is therefore a strong argument for obtaining wide-

ranging information to form an accurate picture of performance of an individual.

Potential matters more

During job interviews or appraisal processes, employers will typically be looking at an empl oyees

potential as the most important quality rather than the listed skills on a CV. There is always an

1A 360 degree appraisalis a type of employee performance appraisal in which subordinates, co-workers, and managers all anonymously rate the employee. This information is then incorporated intothat person's performance review.


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element of risk when it comes to employing new people so candidates need to think carefully about

the type of skills they wish to emphasize and should pick examples they can demonstrate to minimize

the perceived risk of employing new blood.

It is now a well-known trendy quality for employees to realize that they need to be flexible in their

working patterns and be prepared to change jobs and/or sectors if they believe there are better

prospects elsewhere (Smith, 2003). This trend has been encouraged by employers who are also

innovating in the type of jobs created that attract employees who have a variety of employable skills.

Employers are often looking for skills that go beyond qualifications and experience.

While an employees education and experience may make them eligible to apply for a job, employers

are looking beyond the traditional CV that signifies education and experience one has gone

through. Most roles advertised are no longer cast in stone based on the level of formal education and

experience but are a greying across several similar skills with a practical variation being tailored to

specific requirements. As a result, to be successful in the role, an employee would need to exhibit a

mix of skill commonly called employability skills or potential skills. This means that the

specialist, technical skills associated with different roles may be less important than the soft skills

that can be transferred between different jobs and different employment sector without productivity

being undermined. Soft skills is used interchangeable with employability skills.

Soft SkillsVs Hard Skills

Employability skills are those skills necessary for getting, keepingand being successful in a job.

These are desirable skills and attitudes that enable employees to get along with their colleagues, to

make critical decisions, solve problems, develop respect and ultimately become strong ambassadors


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for the organisation. They are people person skills that make an employee likeable, comfortable

and accommodating to peers whilst delivering on the hard skills that qualified the employee to

be considered for the job in the first place.

Most organizations have come to appreciate the combination of the hard skills with the softskills

as the perfect combination for an employee to be guaranteed to keep and improve on their career

progression. These Employability skills or soft skills are the foundation of a formidable

employees career building blocks and they are frequently referenced in the media as lacking in

school-leavers, graduates and those already in employment.

It is no wonder that Organizations spend a lot of time and money training staff, not in job specific

areas but in general and basic skills that involve soft skills. In times of high unemployment,

employers have more choice of applicants and will favor those with well-rounded employability

skills and to avoid disappointment, its incumbent on employees to crave these soft skills so that

they can be used within innovative work environments that demand out of the box skills that

sustain modern working processes. The most sought after soft skills are typically:

Critical Thinking, Commercial Awareness, Assertiveness, Decision Making, Problem Solving,

Negotiation, Personal Development, Building Confidence, Time Management, Personal

Presentation, Avoiding Stress, Study Skills, Developing own Leadership Style Strategic Thinking,

Being Charismatic, learning how to Delegate, Organizing Skills

Primarily, it has become desirable for employers to insist on getting the right people simply by

identifying people with the right skills and qualities to fulfil the role that contribute to the

organisation's success. Candidates may have the educational qualifications and hard skills needed

to be able to manage the job role but, without a well-honed set of soft skills, employers are less


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(b)The employee/candidate must make sure that their employable job skills are entirely up-to-

date. It is not enough for an employee to have only basic use of computers or only able to

operate a basic Word processing program. They need to be able to operate the most up-to-

date software that is used in offices and understand the technological trends without looking

old fashioned and ignorant in the buzzword arena

(c) It is vital that an employee/candidate must figure out what is at the core of each employable

skill they possess and develop or innovate how to apply the same skills differently.

(d)Employees/candidates must proactively stimulate their sense of creativity in the role they are

called upon to work in and show grace and fluency in carrying out their job. Most job skills

stagnate when employees stop being creative and rely only on the entry level of knowledge

they possessed when they were employed.

(e)Employees/candidates must attempt to have a personal Mentor. This service can either be

arranged by the organisation or a candidate/employee can seek private help. The best way to

improve ones skills set is to find a mentor who is willing to help the candidate or employee

for purposes of making the individual more productive and reliable. It is always beneficial

to work with a trusted individual in ones field for purposes of assisting the

candidate/employee to improve job skills.

(f) As research has shown repeatedly, there is no substitute to education (Jones, 1991). Getting

more education will always make an employee more credible and marketable than remaining

in lower levels of education. A lot of job candidates who struggle to find jobs might need to

go back to school instead. This helps to improve upon their existing employable skill set and

raise their self-confidence.


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(g)Knowing ones worth and demonstrating their value assist in creating an aura of professional

awareness and ability. Candidate or employees who know their worth will always aspire for

higher job attainment in contrast to individuals who remain in lower job levels because they

lack confidence to aspire for higher level job opportunities.

(h)Adding an extra language to ones employable job skills go a long way in making an

employee more marketable as the industry demands are now mostly international. Someone

who is bilingual is always going to be preferred to one who speaks only one language. In

addition to knowing other languages, the future worker should also be able to learn and adapt

to different cultural norms and be less insular.

(i) An employee who spends time adding knowledge and updating their personal appreciation

of the world around them will always have a competitive edge on those employees who

restrict themselves to only what they feel is relevant to perform their job. (Natrins & Smith,

2004). With the advent of big data2, there is a multitude of research and data available at the

click of a button. Computing power is only going to increase over the next five to ten years

and the more information an employee can access, the faster the rate at which they can access

career progression.

2Big data is a popular term used to describe the exponential growth and availability of data, both structured and

unstructured.


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Conclusion

An employees worth today, and especially tomorrow is going to be measured by the employees

ability to innovate, understand others, get along well with those around them, and act and react

appropriately in various situations as is essential in todays workplace. Adaptability is a trait that is

absolutely critical for the future professional. Consequently, in the future workplace, this social

intelligence may set employees apart from a different type of competition coming from those who

base their competition only on hard skills. Basics like an employees ability to engage in

conversation, get to know someone/peers personally, and develop meaningful relationships will

provide a competitive edge over the future, more professional versions of todays competition

groupings. To avoid disappointments, it is important for an employee to possess hard skills, but

more importantly, improve and acquire soft skillsthat make employers to be attracted to such an

employee.Stressful situations and disappointments are all too common in a workplace that's facing

budget cuts, staff layoffs, and department changes. It may become harder and harder for employees

to manage their expectations under these circumstances when they lack soft skills. Sadly, if

management is forced into making more layoffs, they may choose to keep those who have soft

skillsthan those who only rely on hard skillsfor survival.


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How to Combat Disappointment in the Work Place