Every person wants to feel they bring value to what they do, and because of that, employees who are underworked or have too little work have negative feelings about their employer, according to attitude research company Sirota Survey Intelligence (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 24, 2008).  In fact, almost 66% of underworked employees have negative about their bosses, their workplace, and the company.

These sentiments mirror those of overworked employees--a much more prevelant condition leading to burnout and increased turnover.

Both problems arise from managers who do not understand the work loads and workflows of their areas of responsibility.  They may not completely understand the tasks performed, the results of those tasks, and the end use of those results.  Furthermore, there may not be a clear understanding of each employees' talents, skills and aptitutdes as it relates to job performance.

Finally, employees at both ends of this problem scale may not understand the expectations of their jobs, or they may lack clear performance metrics and measurements.

Finding the middle ground not only provides your organization much more productive employees, it also reduces turnover because it establishes a balanced work-life scenario.  If you need help identifying these issues, check out our book, Positioning Success by ordering it from our Home Page.  In it we help you analyze your organization, understand your people assets, and investigate your true cost of providing service.  (I only do commercials occassionally--here is one of those commercials!)