What To Do When Your Employee Starts Checking Out.

• Author: Coodsell, Brittny
• Position: Don't Lose Your Employees

Apathy at work can cause productivity to come to a standstill. Here's how to handle it.

One Utah manager made it a habit to offer basketball tickets to several of his team members. But he never explained why certain people received the tickets and others did not. This left employees who didn't receive tickets wondering if they weren't doing as good of a job. Did the manager see the tickets as a reward for a job well done? Were those employees being compensated for bringing something new to the table? And what did it mean when tickets went to the same person more than once?

Crystalee Beck, Founder and President of Professional Communication Consulting, says this is an example of 'unfair selection' in the workplace--and it's one of many reasons an employee might start to disengage at work. Something that started off well-intentioned can end up impacting a team or employee in a negative way, and, unless a manager pays attention, that employee could motivation and disengage from their team. "Ultimately, no one takes a job thinking, Tm going to do a crappy job with this,'" says Ms. Beck. "Everyone, when they take a job ... want[s] to do a good job."

SIGNS YOUR EMPLOYEE IS PULLING AWAY

Favoritism is just one reason an employee might lose motivation at work. But whatever the cause, the end result is the same. The employee no longer contributes creative ideas. They feel apathetic about projects. Productivity comes to a standstill. They may miss work or take extra personal days. They may even speak badly about their managers or dabble in office gossip as a way to passively nurse their hurt or anger.

Elisa Garn, Vice President of Human Resources and Talent at Christopherson Business Travel, says disengagement also represents itself as sabotaging the work of others. "Really it's anybody that is not participating in the company in a positive way," she says. "That's the easiest way to explain it."

Gary Beckstrand, Vice President at O.C. Tanner, says disengaged employees usually only do the bare minimum of what is required of them. They're often focused on their own wellbeing rather than the wellbeing of the team. "Depending on the level of disengagement, the employee may actually, over time, intentionally or unintentionally deliver suboptimal work that actually hurts productivity beyond just maintaining the status quo," Mr. Beckstrand said in an email.

WHY YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE MIGHT BE TO BLAME

So, where does it all start? Ms. Garn says the number one...