What is job dissatisfaction?

Job dissatisfaction occurs when an employee does not feel satisfied with his or her job. This can be due to various professional and personal reasons such as lack of promotions, poor management, limited work-life balance, and more.

What causes job dissatisfaction?

Work takes up a significant portion of a person's life, and people have expectations of what their work should be like. When these expectations are not met, it leads to feelings of frustration, bitterness, and loss of interest, leading to job dissatisfaction.

Job dissatisfaction can arise for a number of reasons, such as:

• getting low salary
• having an unsupportive or unreliable boss
• Limited career growth in an organization
• Lack of meaning behind the role
• Lack of work-life balance
• Poor Management

What happens when employees are not satisfied?

When workers are not satisfied they are forced to look for job opportunities elsewhere.

Others may choose to stay put and be unhappy. This may be due to fear of change, a lack of updated skills, or an unwillingness to give up certain benefits (their current salary, healthcare, retirement plan, etc.).

Employee responses to job dissatisfaction

Employees' responses to job dissatisfaction can be divided into four categories:

1. Exit:  Exit reactions occur when employees leave an organization or transfer to another department to get away from their unhappy situation.
2. Voice:  Employees falling into the voice category will speak to management about their negative experience and make suggestions for improvement. This is considered the most constructive approach to job dissatisfaction.
3. Loyalty:  People who respond with loyalty will not take any action. They will simply stay in their jobs with the hope that one day change will come.
4. Neglect:  Employees who react with neglect perform their job duties poorly rather than actively trying to improve their situation. They may frequently call in sick, submit dull work, and be unresponsive to messages/emails.

Effects of job dissatisfaction

Job dissatisfaction not only reduces work performance and morale, but it can also negatively impact your end result. When employees are not engaged in their work, they are less likely to be motivated to be productive and deliver quality services.

Studies have shown  that there is a correlation between positive employee experience and higher return on assets and sales. Companies ranked in the top 25% in terms of employee experience recorded nearly three times the return on assets and twice the return on sales compared to companies in the bottom quartile.

5 signs of job dissatisfaction

There are five main signs of job dissatisfaction. Employers can use these to better measure the level of dissatisfaction in their workplace and help make necessary changes.

1. Lack of interest

Texting friends, browsing social media or simply staring at the ceiling indicates a person's lack of interest in their work. One of the earliest signs of job dissatisfaction, disinterest gradually gets worse over time and can impact work performance.

2. Procrastination

A lack of interest can lead employees to procrastinate. People who procrastinate typically:

• Wait until the last minute to complete a task
• Making excuses for not working on projects earlier
• Failing to put in enough organization and thought into your work due to the limited time you have

3. Irritability

Although every job has its moments of stress, if employees are constantly stressed and in an irritable mood, it leads to even more job dissatisfaction. Irritability not only adversely affects one's mental health, but it also affects the co-workers around them.

4. Frequent absences

When people are not happy with their jobs, they do not want to perform their responsibilities. Therefore, they have a tendency to frequently call in sick. Frequent absences indicate that the employee is disinterested and uncommitted to his work.

5. Lack of effort

When an employee is not fully investing his expertise and talents in his position, it is a sign that he is not satisfied. People who are satisfied with their jobs usually have more motivation to succeed in their roles.

How to overcome job dissatisfaction?

Understanding employee issues and improving their experience is key to overcoming job dissatisfaction. There are several ways your team can improve the employee experience:

• Provide recognition:  Celebrate milestones during company meetings and praise employees' hard work. Consider incorporating a rewards system where workers receive some sort of compensation (money, more paid vacation, team outings, etc.).
• Develop a compensation strategy:  Are you paying your employees well? Great. But do you have a payroll and compensation strategy that keeps your workers productive and satisfied? Consider an employee's career trajectory and tie it to compensation to increase motivation, morale and productivity.
• Provide training and mentoring:  Nine out of ten employees  who have mentors say they are happy with their jobs. Mentoring can provide employees with the opportunity to be well-trained in their roles, receive candid but caring feedback, and tips for climbing the ladder.
• Reduce payroll errors:  Hourly employees have an annual turnover rate  of 49%  . By providing accurate compensation and efficient communication, you can effectively meet the specific needs of hourly employees.
• Listening and responding:  We mentioned earlier that the most constructive response an employee can make in the case of job dissatisfaction is to be assertive and raise his concerns with management. Accordingly, managers can respond positively to that feedback. If the employee feels he is being listened to and if management takes steps to meet the needs that are not being met, this will help.