Putin isn’t the only one with insurgency problems

A senior guy at a large management consultancy spent some time last week rambling me through the inane complexities of their annual appraisal system. The ins and outs are far too boring to report, but headlines: Massive time suck. Damages morale (oh the irony). Blunt, old fashioned rankings.

Against this backdrop, it’s perhaps not surprising that according to the Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report, in an average team of four:

💪🏻 One is fully engaged and productive (23%). An improvement from 2009, when it was only one in eight!

⏰ Two are watching the clock (59%)

🧨 And the fourth is setting fire to stuff and causing trouble (18%)

🤬 Almost two felt A LOT (their caps) of stress yesterday* (44%)

😡 One felt A LOT of anger yesterday* (21%)

👀 Two of them are open to or actively looking for a new job (51%)

And

🏡 Whether you work in the office, at home or in hybrid makes precious little difference to these numbers.

Two thoughts:

1. Can we stop arguing about where we work and let organisations decide based on hiring and retention strategies, rent obligations, brand and what they actually need? Although I am enjoying Joeli Brearley’s round ups of all the crimes working-from-homers are committing. This week, it's using hosepipes 💦

2. Maybe instead, we could obsess about real productivity, getting the right people into the right roles, motivating them brilliantly and letting those disruptors turn their flames to bonkers systems and counter-productive bureaucracy.

What do you think?

Next week

How to tell if your presentation landed… or bombed.

Christine

*technically they filled in the survey the day before. I’m assuming it wasn't a Monday, so the anger or stress didn’t come from their toddler filling the toilet bowl with Lego.