Frustrated Employees Can Hurt Your Business. Here's How to Fix It
Frustrated Employees Can Hurt Your Business. Here's How to Fix It

Frustrated Employees Can Hurt Your Business. Here’s How to Fix It

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Frustrated Employees Can Hurt Your Business. Here’s How to Fix It

A recent survey shows that risk is on the rise, with nearly half of all respondents saying they feel misunderstood and undervalued on the job. 46 percent of “employees believe their boss only somewhat or rarely understands” their actions and efforts at work. 48 percent of respondents believed managers regularly underestimate their performance, and the value it provides the business. Employers can prevent the problems that can take root because of mismatched perceptions between employees and management. the 2025 Workplace Perception Gap Survey by The Predictive Index found that 44 percent of employees believe their bosses don’t understand their actions or efforts. 44 percent said they’d been “passed over for raises, promotions, or key projects because someone misinterpreted their skills or work behaviors” 44 percent thought their bosses would benefit from management training programs, which 44 percent believed their bosses could benefit from. The survey was carried out by human relations company ThePredictive Index. It found that 43 percent said company leaders offer feedback or instruction they viewed as unhelpful or irrelevant to the work they do.

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Employee engagement and company morale depend heavily on subjective perceptions and assumptions across the workplace . But when those become tinged with regret or resentment , they can create problems between individual workers and their colleagues—as well as with their managers. A recent survey shows that risk is on the rise, with nearly half of all respondents saying they feel misunderstood and undervalued on the job. The degree to which many workers don’t think they’re getting credit for their personal and professional contributions was evident in the 2025 Workplace Perception Gap Survey by human relations company The Predictive Index. It found fully 46 percent of “employees believe their boss only somewhat or rarely understands” their actions and efforts at work. As a result, an additional 48 percent of respondents believed managers regularly underestimate their performance, and the value it provides the business. While those clashing perceptions are a concern on their own, the disconnect behind them can generate bigger problems over time. An example of that was the 44 percent of participants who said they’d been “passed over for raises, promotions, or key projects because someone misinterpreted their skills or work behaviors.” The person blamed for that was usually a manager or company owner, with 48 percent of respondents saying their superiors consistently undervalue their efforts and contributions on the job. Another sign of those apparently mismatched perceptions was the 43 percent of employees who said company leaders offer feedback or instruction they viewed as unhelpful or irrelevant to the work they do—or even the ways they go about their job. “When nearly half the workforce is getting guidance that doesn’t match their self-perception, professional development becomes confusing and ineffective,” comments accompanying the survey’s results noted. In other words, people feeling unappreciated, undervalued, and in some respects neglected can develop resentment, which may become trouble for business owners down the road. That can start with discontented workers holding back, taking fewer risks, contributing less, and keeping their best ideas to themselves on the assumption they’ll go unheard or unrewarded anyway. Those reactions deprive companies of the critical thinking, initiative, and problem-solving strengths they normally benefit from when workers aren’t brooding. Meanwhile, as time goes by and perceptions of being misunderstood and undervalued evolve, unhappy employees often start disengaging, decreasing their productivity to employers as a result. In some cases, resentful workers may also begin clashing with team members they view as failing to support them. Or worse still, they perceive colleagues as getting ahead by managers rewarded their contributions instead. Add these effects up, and staffing stability may suffer. Employees feeling undervalued often wind up quitting their jobs in favor of new workplaces where they think their talents and efforts will be fully appreciated. In addition to the loss of veteran staff members, replacing people who leave is an expensive process . So how can employers prevent the problems that can take root because of mismatched perceptions between employees and management? According to The Predictive Index, one way is by bridging the communications gap between disaffected employees and managers, and identifying and addressing the personal subjectivities that may lead to problematic divergences of appreciation. A good place to start with that is initiating management training programs, which 44 percent of survey respondents thought their bosses would benefit from. Those initiatives are usually designed to permit supervisors to recognize and compensate for any personal biases they might have in assessing staff. By examining those, managers may more objectively analyze and evaluate performance by employees. They can also weigh those against how workers’ respective personalities and styles on the job may affect how they’re appreciated across the workplace, in addition to assessing their performance. Another tool companies can use is revising and clarifying the metrics and processes for promoting people. That restructuring should aim to give both staff and managers a better means of accessing complaints about workers being unfairly passed over—and determining whether they’re well-founded and merit redress. More open and effective communications should also be encouraged, especially by expanding the channels that let managers give and receive staff feedback. Those can range from more formal consultations to routine, even chatty check-ins, and recurring group exchanges structured to permit freer flowing input, insights, and reactions from all participants. Creating those new opportunities to exchange views can be carried out as part of a broader effort to encourage staffers to speak up and seek direction or help from supervisors—or even point out efforts or accomplishments workers want managers to notice. Employers determined to reduce risks of misperception and underappreciation may also consider using widely available workplace behavior assessment tools. Those often help employees and managers alike acquire a better understanding of how their personalities, approaches, and efforts at work differ from colleagues. Those factors can then be tracked and evaluated across the workplace to show people where they fit in compared to their coworkers. That tends to help reduce the subjective gray areas between performance, appreciation, and rewards where potentially troublesome presumptions and resentment can take root. “When employees feel accurately seen and valued, they bring their full talents to work,” the remarks accompanying the survey results said. “Closing the perception gap will create teams that collaborate, innovate and adapt better while also driving results… (and) catapult team performance and tap into a wellspring of talent that’s been hiding in plain sight.” The final deadline for the 2025 Inc. Power Partner Awards is this Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now .
Source: Inc.com | View original article

Source: https://www.inc.com/bruce-crumley/frustrated-employees-can-hurt-your-business-heres-how-to-fix-it/91216393

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