5 Actions to Help an Unhappy Employee
Knowing how to help an unhappy employee recover their motivation and positive outlook is a great skill for a manager to have. Unhappy employees:
- Tend to be less motivated and produce less
- They can become disgruntled employees causing all sorts of issues.
- Make your job of managing the team much harder
- They are much more likely to leave, with all the disruption and costs this brings
None of these outcomes is good for you, the team, or the business. The good news is many unhappy employees can be moved to a much more positive place with a little work from you.
The earlier you can spot an unhappy employee and the earlier you take action, the easier it will be to move them to a much more positive place. The longer you leave the unhappy employee stewing with their unhappiness, the worse their behaviour and actions are likely to get.
Written by Jess Coles – 7 Minute Read
5 Actions to Help an Unhappy Employee:
9 Signs of an Unhappy Employee
5 Actions to Help an Unhappy Employee:
- Find out the reasons for the unhappiness
- Listen and be empathetic
- Address the issues you can quickly
- Remain persistent in finding a resolution
- Keep records
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9 Signs of an unhappy employee
Every team member will have their own way of showing their unhappiness. Here are 9 typical signs of an unmotivated employee:
- Being unusually quiet
- General disengagement at work
- Complaining more
- Their output noticeably reducing
- Turning up late
- Noticeable resistance to general requests
- Distressed conversations with colleagues
- Increased errors or general lack of attention
- Increase in requests for praise
If you are having one-on-one meetings each week with your direct reports and you are paying attention to their non-verbal communication, you are likely to spot signs of unhappiness quickly. You can take action quickly to deal with unhappy employees. Early action massively increases your chances of getting a good outcome.
So once you have spotted the signs of an unhappy employee knowing what to do is pretty important.
5 Actions to Help an Unhappy Employee
Find out the reasons for the unhappiness – the first action to help an unhappy employee
If you don’t know what the problem is, it is very hard, if not impossible, to choose the right solution.
As soon as you spot signs of an unhappy employee, review actions, decisions or lack of actions at work that might be causes of unhappiness. Some more obvious work related examples are:
- Someone else got the promotion they were after
- Not getting onto a project or not being offered work which would develop their skills
- Missing out on sales targets or getting a bonus
Don’t assume you know the answers even if it appears obvious. Invite the individual into a meeting room for privacy and ask them what has made them unhappy.
Just the simple step of trying to find out what is making them unhappy shows you care. This is usually enough to get them to open up.
Ask colleagues they are friendly with if they are aware of any issues. Be discreet when asking these types of questions of other staff members.
Keep asking questions until you understand what is causing the employee unhappiness. Always be careful and empathic when asking questions while not giving up.
The second action to help an unhappy employee: Listen and be empathetic
When the unhappy team member starts telling you what the issues are, your most important job is to actively listen to what they are saying and be empathetic.
You should only speak to encourage them to say more. The best way I have found to do this is ask open questions and then wait for their response.
Don’t rush to provide a solution or defend a decision or action that you or another manager has taken. Just listen.
Letting the unhappy employee vent and say what is bothering them will improve their mindset, especially if you are really listening and taking in what they are saying.
Ask as many questions as you need so you really understand the situation the unhappy employee is in.
Actively listen to what they are telling you and you will be in a much better place to help an unhappy employee.
Address the issues you can quickly – the third step to help an unhappy employee
Once you know what is causing a team member to be unhappy, you can take useful action.
If the issue is work related, then work out what action should be taken by you. Some issues will be within your control to resolve. More are likely to be outside of your control to resolve.
There are a huge range of reasons, events, decisions, and actions that might result in an employee becoming unhappy. What to do about a given one is a judgement on your part based on the particular circumstances. I would suggest that you think carefully about the intended and un-intended consequences of taking a particular course of action and what precedents this may set for the wider team. Consistency of decisions and actions will help you reduce the chances of making individuals unhappy.
Let’s touch on a couple of examples:
If there is conflict between team members, bullying or negative behaviour, then hopefully your actions will focus on resolving the conflicts or stopping the behaviour as a key way to help an unhappy employee.
If a decision was taken for the good of the team or the business which happens to negatively impact one person’s job, then you may not want to change that decision. Your focus might be on what you can do to address the employee’s concerns, loss of work, prestige, or other benefits they used to enjoy – if of course – that is appropriate.
Work out what is sensible and practical to do. Putting the effort in to think about possible solutions and communicating these to the unhappy employee will go a long way to helping the situation. Always report back to the employee what you have done or considered. If change is not possible or not desirable, explain the reasons for this very clearly.
For issues that are not work related, your role may be more of a supportive colleague – available to listen, to give them time off if they are seeking external help, to help manage their workload to give them space to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.
Take what action you can to deal with unhappy employees and tell them about the action you have taken.
The fourth action for how to deal with unhappy employees: Remain persistent in finding a resolution
Remaining persistent to find a resolution is perhaps the hardest stage. It is so easy to stop at a partial resolution or after the employee has let off steam and appears happier. I have regrettably done this myself several times.
Try to keep revising the issues with the unhappy employee and pushing for a more meaningful resolution. Until you reach the point where the unhappy employee is definitely happy again, there will be a significantly bigger risk of them leaving, of negative behaviour or lower efforts levels being put in.
Don’t accept okay. Look for a good resolution. The extra effort in my view is nearly always rewarded with improved loyalty, effort and appreciation from both the previously unhappy employee and also the remaining members of the team.
Keep Records – the final action to deal with unhappy employees
Keep notes of the meetings you hold – the when and the where and the highlights of the conversation points with the unhappy employee. The best and most common scenario is that you never need to look at those notes again.
On a few occasions, the unhappy employee can become a disgruntled or problematic employee despite your best efforts. This is where your notes become invaluable if you need to run a Performance Improvement Plan or if more formal action is needed.
Invest in keeping notes of the conversations and actions taken.
In summary
Spotting the signs of an unhappy employee early is worth its weight in gold from a management perspective. Finding out exactly what the issues are and then taking action to resolve the issue or support them in resolving their issues, is essential to gain a happy employee.
To recap, we have been through 9 signs of an unhappy employee and the 5 actions to help an unhappy employee being:
- Find out the reasons for the unhappiness
- Listen and be empathetic
- Address the issues you can quickly
- Be persistent in finding a resolution
- Keep records in case the worst happens
Keeping everyone in your team happy and motivated makes your workday a lot more enjoyable and has loads of positive benefits for the team and company.
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