Strategies for handling employee frustrations

After witnessing my first ever nation-wide labour demonstration on July 24, 2014, about the harsh conditions of our economy, I came to the conclusion that all was not well with both employers and employees.

The government, being the largest employer in the economy, appealed to organised labour to halt the demonstration. Those appeals did not convince labour enough, since they felt it was an opportune time to drum home their plight.  

What workers demonstrated was a sign of frustration, mistrust, stress and emotions that they were going through.  But this also indicated that employers could do all that they could to calm the nerves of labour. This is to win their confidence, trust and morale, a prerequisite for turning available resources into required output.

Truthfully, conflict, irrespective of the sector of a particular industry, occurs and this hampers work and output. Really, despite the fact that certain sectors of the workforce are considered special, and therefore cannot lay down their tools or vent their frustrations and anger on their employers in the open, their workplace agitations and actions in this regard, greatly result in tensions that affect work done.  The end result is the nation or that sector of the economy loses out on their contribution to national productivity. 

What management must always be aware of is that problems being faced started somewhere and sometime and therefore its recognition now is an indication that certain issues might have gone unnoticed or that management failed in their capacity to address it the first time it occurred.  

Once swept under the carpet, situations resurface and in times of engagement between employers and employees, workers’ productivity suffer, resulting in missed targets and financial losses.

Significantly, in many organisations, there are countless traits of frustrations, emotions and low morale among employees and managers. Many employees are of the view that they are not being recognised, rewarded adequately and resourced fully to give their best. 

Others are of the view that their working environment, culture and work processes is what holds them down and that management has failed in their quest to address them appropriately.

Strategically, confronting issues of productivity, motivation, impediments and limitations to meet friendlier working environments and general outputs, is a golden chance for management to release from their sleeves, their ingenuity in turning around the entire workplace to meet both internal and external expectations that transcends into financial gains and business growth.  

These as well, go on to improve gains made in the market and finally, ensure stability and market leadership.

Causes of the frustrations

If by estimation, about 21 per cent make the number of workforce that get frustrated regularly and that about a third frequently indicates the lack of resources and information to accomplish tasks, then surely these cause some of the frustrations that lead to low morale and productivity.

In the same vein, if co-workers gossip, impede and intentionally delay work processes that affect colleagues’outputs, then conflicts, charged emotions and frustrations are bound to happen.

A lot more from offensive or irritable use of words in communicating from a higher ranked to a lower ranked employees result in resentments.  That of poor decisions made and attitudes towards employees’ welfare with rigid workplace regulations also culminates into agitations for flexible working environments.

Definitely, an aggregate of all these shows off in the attitudes of workers who try to resist whatever negative emotions these bring. They try to restore conducive environment that bring peace, togetherness, co-operation and teamwork for greater workers output.

Management, therefore, in trying to eliminate any kind of tension from the workplace would have to acknowledge the fact that such situations are eminent and that, being avoided, should be handled and managed well to forestall the needed atmosphere that accommodates efforts and energies that result in proper outputs.

Strategies for dealing with frustrations

Some managers at times are of the view that workers frustrations and emotions can be brushed aside. They think it is of no use giving audience to workers’ grievances as this waste precious working time and resources. 

This attitude is factually costly as delays in addressing workers issues rather render the entire output of the organisation falling below expectations. This happens when workers think they have had enough and, therefore, cannot harbour any of their frustrations any longer.

By sitting down with workers and listening to their pleas greatly help to resolve agitated issues. The time spent with them accords the opportunity to identify problems, with solutions searched to reduce, if not eliminate, the challenges and difficulties that the workers go through.

So remember that your workforce is the most important asset of all your resources and once you find time to address their concerns, they become happy and in the turn give their best for utmost maximisation of resources and targeted outputs. 

Thus, for management to deal with daunting setbacks that frustrate workers, these strategies come in handy to help.

Access workers’ moods and emotions  

Be mindful of your employees’ attitudes and moods. Take a look at how they go about their work and check their enthusiasm towards tasks and assignments.  

Emotional signs expressed in words, body language and facial expression sum up to what is happening at any moment in time at the workplace. An evaluation of this will tell you when to switch on the next gear.

Be proactive

Anticipate early enough what the signals are. Having taken cues from your evaluation, quickly address the issues per the laid down regulations. 

Try then to avoid all tensions in every form and create conducive atmosphere for greater output.

Be open

Management must keep their modes of communication very transparent. Allow both departmental managers and subordinates the free will to express their grievances either from top-down or from bottom-up through the appropriate reporting lines.  

When this is assured, trust, frankly expressed issues and concerns would be addressed long enough before they degenerate into uncontrolled misfortunes.

Involve all parties

Management in setting up every new policy must include all during the planning or decision making stages.  This could be done at the departmental level with various heads meeting their subordinates to make inputs into the whole strategic plan.  

When done effectively, employees will feel part and own the company policies. It will become difficult to break rules set by all. Such then will eliminate ill-feelings and resultant frustrations.

Communicate professionally

A lot more employees take everything personal and therefore are much concerned about their emotions, frustrations and anger when ill-spoken of or spoken to. Management must be aware of this. 

They must be careful in their choice of words when communicating with or to employees. Once offended, it spreads like cancer, eating into attitudes while productivity suffers.

Improve technical and managerial skills of superiors

It is imperative to train managers and supervisors alike to improve upon their technical know-how. That of their leadership abilities must also be enhanced. 

All these are to be carried onto manage appropriately the people they lead in their various departments. This is intended to avoid unnecessary agitations and tensions that affect the organisation as a whole.

Training on conflict management, communication and inter-personal skills, as well as effective application of their leadership skills, all come in handy to avert the unexpected.

Conclusion

There is evidence that emotional stress can lead to conflict at the workplace. That is why frustrations coming from whichever angle also adds to workers agitating for better conditions and work environment to achieve results. 

It behoves management to see the negative impact that all these bring, while finding the best strategies to avoid the canker that filters in.