Another Amazing Anagram… and additional alliteration!!!

<help me>

Another study came out the other day talking about the importance of the employee-supervisor-co worker relationships to job satisfaction and ultimately retention. The study seemed sound, had questions that were worded pretty well, the sample size was pretty good (research phrase alert) and the conclusions were reasonable.

Employees that get along with their “team” and their “team leader” are more likely to remain with the company longer than their brethren who don’t like the people they work with.  So… what’s the point?

The tone of the article was one of SURPRISE!  These findings were alarming, spoke negatively to the relationship bosses have with their worker-bees, were a wake-up call to employers.

REALLY THIS IS NEWS?!?!

Remember how long ago I said Boss Spelled Backwards is “Double-S-O-B”?!  Employees quit a boss, not a company.  And on occasion, a crazy co-worker.

It’s interesting (AND NOT SURPRISING ANYMORE UNLESS YOU LIVE UNDER A ROCK, OR WORK IN A BUSINESS THAT LIVES UNDER A ROCK) to look at how employees see their work relationships compared to employees with the same job at other companies.  According to some of the preliminary data from my organization’s (nearly completed) national workforce engagement survey, the most surprising results occur in the government sector:

Less than 50% of federal government employees believe their relationship with their supervisor is better than other employees with similar jobs at other companies, while 17% conclude that the relationship is worse.  This is the worst performing industry of the 16 measured.

In addition, the percentage of local government employees who have a better relationship with their boss (66%) is higher than the percentage who have a better relationship with their co-workers (63%).  This is the only industry in which the relationship with the boss is more favorably compared to other companies than their relationship with their co-workers.

Either fact paints a sad picture for an industry that will be losing over 50% of their workers over the next two decades due to retirement.

Either Go or There I Go.

man I like that one.