Executive Eye

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Adrian Furnham on alienated workers

You find them in all organizations: the passed over and the pissed off (POPOS). They are frequently in late middle age, have a limited education and qualifications, and have an “impressive” service record. They have been led to believe — or, in a self-deluded way, expect — that they should be steadily promoted. They have remained in middle management for two reasons, however. Either someone has decided that they have already reached their level of incompetence, or else the organization has been downsized and there is nowhere for them to go. They were certainly poorly selected in the first place or badly managed for years.

POPOS have typically never been given any significant, serious feedback on their performance. Ask a disgruntled, alienated POPO when they last had a 30-minute conversation about their performance and they will usually say never in their working career. If people are neither praised for good work nor punished for bad, it is not surprising that they become alienated.

So, we find angry, alienated POPOS sniping at everything in sight. And they seek each other out, forming a disgruntled cohort of workers who dwell on past injustices, resent young people and are deeply cynical about all company initiatives.

So, what should be done with POPOS? There are three options:

Buy them out. It may seem costly in the short term, but it could be the most cost-effective solution. Everyone has their price, and the deal can be sweetened with outplacement counselling and other services. However, POPOS fear the new, and suddenly their old job will feel like a warm and comfortable place. So, let them know that, in future, the firm will be cold, demanding and competitive.

Raise the game. Set tougher targets for individual workers. Introduce new technology that has to be mastered. Reduce support staff and functions or, more simply, demand more productivity.

Introduce new blood. Bring in new (mostly young) people with no memory of the past. Forward-looking, enthusiastic and manageable, they will show up the alienated workers, prove that the new system can work and provide excellent role models if carefully selected. The young and upwardly mobile will also make the POPOS appear more pathetic than wise, and could either scare them off or change them. Alienated workers are a menace to the organization and to themselves. They need either to learn to adapt to new conditions and recognize the new world as it is, or quit the workplace.