Week 46 - ending 11/18: Disappointment
- traversingtwoworlds
- Nov 18, 2023
- 3 min read
My workplace likes to encourage employees to improve. This includes working on oneself and ones interpersonal relationships with others at the job.
My coworker and I have the most experience in such areas and were asked to create a presentation that included book/topic overviews of Emotional Intelligence, the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, and Crucial Confrontations. When we first met to discuss the task I asked for her thoughts on sending out a survey first asking all employees specific questions relating to the company. These questions touched on topics like trust, workload, recognition, and others. I offered an anonymous option for folks to respond so we would have no idea who answered each question. We sent out the survey on a Wednesday and asked for all responses to be back to us by the following Wednesday, providing one calendar week to complete a short survey.
Fast forward one week and 27% of the staff responded. 27%. That means 73% of the staff, was too busy, didn't care, didn't trust the process, disregarded me, or forgot. As I sat with my disappointment I examined every possible reason for not responding. I wrote them all down and also wrote down all of the feelings I was experiencing.
Too busy - perhaps you should talk with your manager about workload because not being able to find 5 minutes for an email within 1 week seems like a heavy workload.
Didn't want to/don't care - thank you for your honestly, but this is a job. Also, if 73% of people didn't want to or don't care, perhaps upper management should abandon these efforts.
I don't trust that you will keep my answers confidential - fair enough. As a result I offered anonymous options for people to print copies so I wouldn't know who answered what. Of the 27% who responded nobody chose that option.
I don't pay attention to your emails - Ok. If 73% of the company doesn't pay attention to me than there is a larger problem as well.
I assumed everyone else would and didn't do it - If 73% assumes others got it, there is an issue with teamwork, which was the basis of the entire presentation.
I forgot - perhaps a lesson in scheduling and time management would be in order. However, even if forgetful is the reason, there was a reminder Monday, or about halfway through the provided week. Additionally, 73% of the staff forgot? That seems unlikely or systemic, which would warrant training.
So at the end of the day, my co-worker and I were tasked with having to do a presentation, using those books, discussing teamwork, with a team that did not participate. We did our best, keeping things high level and safe.
Then the CFO asked a question.
She said, "Didn't you want to make a comment to the staff about responding to your email?"
I responded with, "You really want to go there?"
She nodded. So we went there.
I expressed my disappoint and all the reasons I ran through in my head about why so many of the staff members would not reply. I dug deeper and told them why I was feeling so much passion towards this disappointment. I let them know that I took this kind of thing very seriously since I have worked at good and bad companies and know this can be a very good thing at making the workplace better for all.
By the end of my time on the soapbox nobody had a valid reason. However, the CEO did apologize because he, as per usual, made it about him and said he should have told everyone this was important. Shall we go back to my list and review the one about disregarding my emails? I think he just proved that point. Thank you. <eye roll>
A few people were genuinely apologetic and I know they didn't mean any harm. Others, I know purely disregarded it because they disregard any teamwork and/or employee training.
In the end, I felt so grateful and apologetic that I personally bought small gifts for those people who responded. I know what I asked took a lot of trust in me because, while I told them I wouldn't send the answers to management, they had trust that to be the case. A thank you because they took the time.
And as I said in an internal meeting earlier in the week, apparently, the bar is so low that replying to an email gets you a prize.
I hope this company, and my coworkers, can strive to place the bar higher. My biggest fear is that my expectations of myself will start slip as a result of being here and I end up disappointing myself.
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