I read recently about a spike in suicides in Europe that were apparently provoked by workplace troubles. Is this a recession issue, or is there something else going on?

Yes and yes. The Economist, in its October 10, 2009 issue, devotes a page entitled Hating what you do to what the recession is doing to workplaces. The suicides in Europe, especially in France, are what the magazine calls the tip of the iceberg. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that work-related suicides increased by 28% from 2007 to 2008, still less than the European rate.

Below the dramatic headlines lurks the rest of the iceberg. The Center for Work-Life Policy, again in the United States, found that the proportion of employees who declared themselves to be loyal to their employers declined from 95%* to 39% from 2007 to 2008. I think this stems from the myopic view taken by too many managers that in bad economic times employees should just be thankful to have jobs. It goes without saying, for goodness sake, that employees are happy to be able to bring home a paycheque; it doesn’t automatically follow that they like their jobs or are happy to have them. Still, with the Economist, a survey by the consultancy Design Development International shows that half of those responding reported that their jobs were “stagnant,” meaning that they were feeling bored and stuck.

Treading water gets you nowhere

So people are hanging on for dear life to what they have. It’s sort of like treading water. Treading water takes about as much energy as swimming, but it’s purely defensive. It produces nothing and changes nothing. But it burns energy. Going to work to tread water for eight hours every day gets people looking for other opportunities, which they will jump at as soon as they can.

For charities and not-for-profit organizations, the environment in which they operate is different, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t financial pressures. Charitable donations are down. Funded agencies may still be funded, but even a 1% cut to a $10-million budget means finding $100,000 in savings – not an easy task.

Managers who face tough conditions that require tough decisions need to summon up some courage. Often managers face a future that’s cloudy because they don’t have information about funding levels or maybe reporting lines. This can cause people to feel embarrassed with their staff. It’s hard to go to your employees and say what you don’t know.

Honesty is the best policy

Hard though it may be, it’s also essential. Managers need to tell employees the truth, no matter how unpalatable. It’s tempting to hide when you have little or nothing to share. But hiding is hardly leadership, and what employees need in tough times is leadership. This means coming clean, not hiding. In the absence of communication from management, employees don’t just sit and do nothing. They pour data into the grapevine, much of it hugely inaccurate, but it fills the void left by management’s silence.

Even if you have no concrete information to share, share what information you can and say that that’s all you have. Don’t give in to the notion that your employees will think less of you because you can’t share more. In fact, they’ll almost certainly think more of you because they now have information that they didn’t have before. Think of it as managing the grapevine.

When you bring your employees up to date as much as you can, you help them to feel included. Don’t be surprised if they come up with ideas that are meant to help your organization through the difficult times. They’d rather do this than feed the rumour mill. People go to feed, and be fed by, the rumour mill in the absence of alternative nourishment. By keeping them as informed as you can, you help to make the rumour mill unattractive.

Hating what you do misstates the issue. Workplace disengagement stems, rather, from feelings of isolation and the sense that your efforts and accomplishments go unrecognized.

*I have to wonder about this figure. It seems awfully high. And it’s not consistent with other findings. But it may be that employees answered the question “Are you loyal to your employer?” with the response that they figured wouldn’t attract negative attention.

To submit a question for a future column, or to comment on a previous one, please contact editor@charityvillage.com. No identifying information will appear in this column. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Tim directly.

Tim Rutledge, Ph.D., is a veteran human resources consultant and publisher of Mattanie Press. You can contact him at tim_rutledge@sympatico.ca or visit www.gettingengaged.ca.

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