Disgruntled Employees

The person believed that his boss had unjustly mistreated him, and remained disgruntled for a long time. How many times have you heard a referral to another employee or former employee as a disgruntled person? What components of “disgruntled” actually apply and how many other factors are injected into the thought or conversation that can mislead someone to think the person talked about has no credibility or validity in what he or she says to others, including the media.

In most cases, these “disgruntled” employees were bright and creative individuals before being labeled a troublemaker or malcontent. The reasons for such mislabeling is obvious if you take the time to read into each and every individual case to glean the purpose of such deceptive administrative approaches and practice to dishonor someone who may have served you well for many years but is now considered to be someone who should be dismissed as a viable source to contain the truth.

Unlike whistleblowers, people who speak the truth and break their internal code of silence or organizational cultures are portrayed to be “traitors” to their peers and administrators. Deflecting anything these persons say or write, is imperative to ensure their own credibility remains intact even though they may have engaged in deceptive practices that were social acceptable through tacit approval methods and the political correctness of today’s society.

Many administrators will never admit they have failed to observe and manage such persons before they resign or are terminated. It is a lose-lose situation for many organization to lose creative and bright individuals who have and still can contribute to the organizational productivity by have been mismanaged at the curve of their change in mindset. Admitting to failure, a no-no in the political arena, a good defense is a solid offense of spiteful words and innuendoes as it also deflects the wrongdoings or the misconduct away from the entity.

In law enforcement, there are many highly motivated and productive people doing a very good job at what they were hired to do. It is alleged that when these people lose their personal focus on the organizational product, they spend more time sabotaging and undermining administrative actions than anything else. Managers, unprepared and untrained to deal with such actions are outmaneuvered and lose control of the situation allowing more damage to be done in the meantime before the problem is handled.

A thorough survey of what a “disgruntled” employee looks or acts like revealed qualities that serve as a common thread to many situations. First symptomatic indicator revealed was a continuum of administrative actions consisting of excessive supervisory interactions to meet and discuss problems, responding to union or labor organizational initiated grievances, informal and formal disciplinary actions indicating this person is problematic in nature and not happy at the workplace.

Supervisors, quick to blame the organization for not helping them managing the behavior are baffled when they realize that their inaction and their lack of documentation regarding behaviors and incidents contributed to the problem. Not holding the person or employee accountable compounded the problem and creates a weak personnel file to act upon. A police report regarding this subject matter states “ This allows problems to continue and get worse, gives tacit approval for inappropriate behavior and performance and opens the door for employee claims of a "personality conflict," unfair treatment, discrimination and a whole host of other allegations. It is these failures, and not the system, that often gives attorneys and labor organizations more than enough ammunition to successfully defend these employees at appeals, in arbitration and in the courts.”

Blaming the first line or middle line supervisors for lack of managing the problem employee is common and often misplaced. The solution to this apathy towards disciplining or holding someone responsible comes from the top to the bottom as administrators demonstrate a strong will to lead by example and give clear direction so to become mentors for the first and middle line managers. Failure to do so creates frustration and changes the mindset and the culture of those who follow. It renders supervisors powerless and eventually gives them the urge to give up any attempts to correct behaviors.

Looking at this criteria researched to identify disgruntled employees or former employees you will seen that this label is often misplaced by top administrators to dismiss their existence or their message. Having to admit these voices of reason speak the truth would be an admittance of guilt that the organization has not managed its own ranks starting with the supervisors and then middle and top management.

Conceivably, these persons were just the opposite and “gruntled” employees or former employees. Gruntled employees can be described by the Oxford Dictionary as “pleased, satisfied, and contented.” It is quiet possible that fed up with the inconsistencies of the organizational moods, rules and culture, these people recognized the opportunity to avoid being sucked into such a dark culture where there were larger issues looming that were harmful to their individual integrity, their conscience and their principles. Perhaps, they realized that the job they once had and enjoyed has been changed [politically] to the degree they can’t be of the same mind with the others in power and relied on fairness to sort things out for them to understand the direction they were headed. Maybe the fairness was denied and they sought other remedies to resolve their issues including speaking out and letting it be known that the mindset and the politics of their [former] employers are harmful to others and endanger matters such as public safety, individual safety and organizational safety to the point they no long want to be associated with such destructive policy.

Source:

http://emotionalsurvival.com/malcontent_and_disgruntled_employees.htm
http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1252578#m_en_us1252578