The Disengagement of the American Worker

In 2012, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) looked at the 34 of the richest countries in the world and compared average annual hours per worker. The raw numbers don’t measure productivity and may be skewed in nations where longer hours typify smaller farms and a plethora of sole proprietorships (e.g., in places like Greece and Turkey), but they say a lot. South Korea topped the list: “Chances are, users will find they work fewer hours than the average worker in Korea, who works an average of 2,190 hours per year -- that comes out to around 44 hours per week with 14 days leave or 42 hours per week with 0 days leave…

“At number 19 on the list, the United States ranked in the middle of the pack, with people averaging 1,695 average hours of work per year, or an average 33.9 hour work week including 10 days leave -- the average vacation period for Americans. That's slightly less than the OECD nations’ collective average of 1,718 annual work hours per year (or 34.4 hours per week with 10 days leave).” BBC.co.uk, May 24, 2012. In terms of productivity, however, the United States was bested by only Norway, Luxembourg, Israel and Ireland. Ireland?!

So these highly productive American workers must be pretty motivated to achieve such productivity, right? Well… not exactly according to Gallup. The State of the American Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for U.S. Business Leaders is a just released report from Gallup’s [the polling folks] ongoing study of the American workplace from 2010 through 2012. This is a continuation of Gallup’s previous report on the U.S. workplace covering 2008 through 2010. Here’s how Jim Clifton, Gallup’s CEO, summarized these most recent findings: “At Gallup, we’ve studied the impact of human nature on the economy for decades. We’ve now reviewed more than 25 million responses to our employee engagement survey, the Q12. And what we found out about managers and employees has serious implications for the future of American companies and the world.

“Of the approximately 100 million people in America who hold full-time jobs, 30 million (30%) are engaged and inspired at work, so we can assume they have a great boss. At the other end of the spectrum are roughly 20 million (20%) employees who are actively disengaged. These employees, who have bosses from hell that make them miserable, roam the halls spreading discontent. The other 50 million (50%) American workers are not engaged. They’re just kind of present, but not inspired by their work or their managers.

“Here’s what you need to know: Gallup research has found that the top 25% of teams — the best managed — versus the bottom 25% in any workplace — the worst managed — have nearly 50% fewer accidents and have 41% fewer quality defects. What’s more, teams in the top 25% versus the bottom 25% incur far less in healthcare costs. So having too few engaged employees means our workplaces are less safe, employees have more quality defects, and disengagement — which results from terrible managers — is driving up the country’s healthcare costs.

“Gallup research also shows that these managers from hell are creating active disengagement costing the U.S. an estimated $450 billion to $550 billion annually. If your company reflects the average in the U.S., just imagine what poor management and disengagement are costing your bottom line.

“On the other hand, imagine if your company doubled the number of great managers and engaged employees. Gallup finds that the 30 million engaged employees in the U.S. come up with most of the innovative ideas, create most of a company’s new customers, and have the most entrepreneurial energy.” Whoa! 70% disenfranchised workers! That’s horrible! It turns out that if they had a chance to find another even-slightly-better job, most Americans would move in an instant.

But a highly unstable job market with continuing high unemployment, fear of losing seniority, continued job contractions in the name of efficiency, global competition from cheaper providers, expensive healthcare, a volatile economy with a market that fluctuates wildly and general risk avoidance keep most Americans in jobs they hate or at least dislike.  Indeed, Gallup’s research shows that in states with the greatest unemployment rates, the levels of disenfranchisement are well above national averages. And, as the report indicates, these workers are ““more likely to steal from their companies, negatively influence their coworkers, miss workdays, and drive customers away.”

This anger and bitterness is reflected in our severe political polarization, and in Congress’ rather complete inability to compromise and function. Anger and bitterness are not particularly useful in problem-solving. If we don’t begin to fix these attitudes, upgrade our educational values and continue to foment research at the levels we used to follow, the United States will become an economic “also-ran.” And Americans aren’t “also-rans”! For bosses out there, are you part of the solution… or just part of the problem?

I’m Peter Dekom, and change starts with wanting and caring about making the system better!