That night I gave the propellor head a full debrief. He gave me a glass of wine. I went through all the usual wine-fired planning sessions (buy a newsagent, start consulting (what?), move to the big Australian, be a stay at home mum and adjust lifestyle accordingly,...). I then enjoyed the rest of the weekend.
By Monday I was back in meetings nodding and smiling...
The fact is I did not really want to quit. I just wanted to enjoy what I was doing and make a difference. I wanted to feel engaged.
Here's some research on engagement:
- Engaged people have less than half the sick leave of the disengaged*
- Engaged employees are 87 less likely to leave the organisation than the disengaged**
Changing the organisation around me to make employees feel more engaged is a task for those with more influence and determination than me. Here's what I do for me when I am feeling disengaged:
- Talk to people, and work on projects where individuals feel excited, happy to share and enthusiastic. It rubs off.
- Its very tempting to grizzle to colleagues and most of the time they'll grizzle back. It's fun for a while but still leaves you in a pit of despair.
- Think of all the jobs worse than my own. I don't mean sewer repairs but other corporate jobs like mine that I still wouldn't want.
- Keep smiling and nodding your head... something better will happen soon...
Having engaged employees is good for business too. I'll cover that in part 2!
*CBI-AXA (2007), Annual Absence and LabourTurnover Survey
**Corporate Leadership Council, Corporate Executive Board (2004)’Driving Performance and Retention through Employee Engagement: a quantitative analysis of effective engagement strategies’
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