How Communication Errors Upset Employees

A major cause of employee dissatisfaction, finally prompting good employees to quit and take their talents elsewhere, is the failure of management and supervisors to adequately communicate with employees.

It's called a breakdown in communication. And it can lead, not just to employees quitting, but to dissatisfied employees going to attorneys and initiating legal actions against their employers. Following is an experience related by one employee which illustrates one example of poor management communication:

The employee's story begins with a shift of job duties from one employee's position to his own. Out of the blue, he learned of the new job duties when he walked into work one Wednesday. By the time 5 p.m. rolled around, he had seven different versions from four different people of what these new responsibilities would be.

The employee later spoke of three communication errors management made:

1. Not once did the man's supervisor -- or any of the other three managers involved in the debacle -- ask him for his input on how the new job responsibilities would impact his work. "Not only was it unprofessional," he said, "it was downright discourteous."
2. Lack of long-term planning. After the dust settled from this brouhaha, the employee learned the decision to shift job duties had actually been in planning for over two months! "If they'd had the courtesy to tell me ahead of time, I could have arranged my workload to meet the new demands," he said.
3. Lack of consensus in communicating the decision. As stated above, the man heard from four people in one day's time seven different versions of his new job duties.

The four people responsible for making the decision never sat together to hammer out one version of the story. Instead, Joe talked it over with Bill. Bill spoke with Nancy. Nancy mentioned it to Patty. Round and round they went the whole daylong. Four adults speaking at cross-purposes with each other.

"By the time I got wind of even one version," the employee said, "it was as garbled as in a game of telephone."

The upshot of the matter? The employee drafted a memo expressing extreme displeasure at this example of poor communication. He handed the memo to each of the four involved principals. They finally agreed to meet together to work out one final version of the employee's new duties.

They also promised such a problem would not arise again in the future. But without identifying a formal process for making and communicating decisions, this employee had no doubt the same muddle could happen the next day.

Fed up, the employee began looking for new work. And he followed the example set by the managers: He didn't communicate this decision to his employer.