Low Satisfaction? Check Management

One of the biggest problems in the way of achieving employee satisfaction is the persistent idea that management knows what it is doing. Indeed, from my own personal experience, it seemed as though the most reviled managers in the organization were almost always the most praised by upper management, as though they were doing a great job despite ample distaste for those under their watch. This needs to change.

Those in management roles have a lot of different tasks they need to undertake, but the entire purpose of being someone’s supervisor is to ensure the office runs smoothly. A manager that is unable to achieve a general level of satisfaction with the employees they monitor is one that is failing at a very important part of their job.

Executives – and those in charge of monitoring management – need to start understanding the vital role that supervisors play in one’s enjoyment of the workplace. Toxic managers ruin employee satisfaction, no matter how skilled they may be at other jobs. That is something that executives seem to misunderstand.

They look at a manager that is able to do all of their tasks well and assume it is the employees beneath them that have the problem, not the manager themselves. But no matter how productive that supervisor is, the more people that are unsatisfied under their leadership, the more the company loses. Imagine the following hypothetical scenario: You have a supervisor if 10 employees that is outstanding at most aspects of their job.

Despite pulling down only a 50,000 a year salary, the employee brings in as much as 200,000 in revenue single handedly. They are spectacular at all of their tasks, and their management style is one that appears at a glance to be flawless. There is only one problem, all of the employees are miserable under this manager.

You assume that because the manager seems to be managing in a way that should lead to good satisfaction, and because the employees under him/her do not nearly bring in as much revenue that the supervisor is still good at their job. But what you are forgetting is that when satisfaction is low, turnover is high. Even if all 10 of the employees beneath this manager are not nearly as good at their job as the manager, their leaving will cost the company more than 200,000 in revenue – their leaving will take away all of the good that the manager brought, possibly more.

No matter how good the supervisor is at their job, if the employees they supervise are unhappy, that represents a serious problem. Employee satisfaction needs to be taken very seriously, and should always generate a response. You may not need to fire all of the managers that are showing poor satisfaction scores, but it should be a sign that something needs to be done about the supervisor.