By Jessica Bowers
Marketing Maven & certified Coach2
I left a job I loved. A job I had a passion for.
And my experience is not unique. You have employees that have experienced something very similar. Maybe it was at your organization, maybe it wasn’t. Either way, they bring that with them to work every day and it makes them more likely to walk out the door.
Out of college, I landed a job working with special needs adults as an education and job coach. This organization provided their participants with work sourced from the local community and building or refining life skills. It was in line with my previous experience and degree, was located close to home, and I was looking forward to growing my career there. The pay was abysmal, but I was promised a 10 cent increase when it was time for performance reviews and you don’t really go into that kind of work expecting to make millions.
I already told you I loved my job. How much? You know THAT employee that is always the first one there every day and often the last one to leave? That was me. I completely revamped the defunct education room, including building inclusive schedules for all of our 60 participants that worked with their work schedules and juggled their individualized assessments. We had other job coaches, but I was the sole educator. As per state requirements, there had to be at least one social worker in the building if we had participants present. Unfortunately, both of our social workers were advanced in years and poor in health, which led to frequent absences. Thankfully, my education and experience qualified me as a stand in. That also gave me access to the files, where I discovered we were woefully out of compliance. These problems would result in loss of funding the next time we were audited, which was coming up soon. I reorganized every individual’s file by hand and initiated much needed updates. There were some important planning and IEP meetings that required a social worker and I was able to attend those in their stead. They also used me as an alternate job coach when other employees were absent.
It sounds like a lot because it was. Listing my duties can’t convey the everyday emotional and physical toll working with developmentally disabled adults brings. You want so badly for them to succeed and be empowered to have as much independence as possible. Many of them needed close supervision and care for their own health and safety needs.
At the time, it never felt like too much. I felt like I was making a difference in their lives and I knew that I was helping that organization provide a vital service to some of society’s most forgotten members. There was a sense of deep pride in that. This was what I was going to do with my career, afterall.
Then came the performance reviews.
That’s where it all fell apart.
The director of the facility provided the reviews for all the employees. When I sat down with her, I was eager for feedback (and that tiny pay raise).
“You’re a 3 out of 5.” You couldn’t have crushed me any flatter than if you’d dropped an entire building on me. That was so… mediocre. I had been working so hard and all it boiled down to was just mediocre?
Then I asked the logical question: “Ok, how can I earn a 5 of 5?” She said the worst thing you could to a enthusiastic employee. “No one gets a five. That’s a perfect score and no one is perfect.” That was it. I waited for her to say more. She didn’t.
“Ok, then how can I earn a 4?” I was hoping for more. I had wanted to make this a career. How can I make this a career if all my hard work was just mediocre?
“Well, you’re a three. Everyone gets a 3 out of 5.” Again, I waited for more. Again, she had nothing else to add.
When I asked about the small raise, she informed me that 3 out of 5 wasn’t enough to get a raise. I was confused and devastated. Not only was there no feedback on how I could do better, but promises were being broken.
It was another few months before I turned in my resignation, but that was the day I mentally checked out. I no longer came in early or stayed late, I did the bare minimum on the paperwork I had to fill out daily, and I declined stretching myself thin by covering the social worker duties.
The worst part? I don’t think that director ever thought she did anything wrong. It was business as usual. It was how all the employees were treated.
At every job I’ve had since then, I carry this experience with me. There’s almost a feeling of having one foot out of the door constantly since then. I won’t ever be crushed like that again.
How many of your employees have had that same blow to their enthusiasm? Even if it didn’t happen at your company, it’s something they bring with them. That means that they too are always alert to any signal that it’s time to quit. Any tiny thing will initiate a resignation letter to your desk. It may even be a subconscious thing. I definitely did not realize it was something I was doing until I encountered Catalytic Coaching.
That process gave me a chance to reflect on where I’d been and where I was going. What DID I want to be when I grew up? And most importantly, HOW was going to grow my career with the company while feeling like my contribution mattered?
Companies have got to be aware of how their processes are impacting their employees, especially in today’s jobs market. Organizations drowning in a turnover tsunami are often floundering in a mess of their own making, but sometimes it's a mess someone else made.
Then, thanks to our hyper connected world, word gets out. They tell everyone what a horrible experience they had. That means these companies now have problems with both retaining AND attracting the employees they need.
I want you to take my story as a cautionary tale. Ask yourself: Are your employees heading for the door?
If you want to ensure you’re doing everything you can to bring in and keep that talent, I’d recommend you be sure to attend the upcoming Finders Keepers webinar that Gary will be co-hosting with Josh McAfee of Humans Doing. It’s well worth the 45 minutes.
