What is the best way to cause employee resentment?

To help you avoid causing employee resentment, we asked CEOs and HR leaders this question for their best insights. From having leaders that don’t hold themselves to team standards to being all talk and no action, there are several viewpoints that may help you avoid employee resentment in the future.

Here are seven ways to cause employee resentment:

• Have Leaders That Don’t Hold Themselves to Team Standards
• Uphold Poor Communication
• Play Favorites
• Micromanage Every Task and Keep Checking in
• Have Bad Leadership
• Act Superior and Talk Down to Employees
• Be All Talk and No Action

Have Leaders That Don’t Hold Themselves to Team Standards

The best way to cause employee resentment is to be the type of leader that holds themselves to a different standard than their team. Employee morale can be surprisingly fragile, and leaders set the tone for how the team will function. The perfect storm of employee resentment comes when leaders spend their time delegating and not working, shift blame for failures onto their subordinates, and create rules for others that they don’t follow themselves. Any team manager that would behave this way is clearly immature and unprepared for the full suite of responsibilities required for the successful execution of their position. Leadership must always hold themselves to the exact same standard that they expect from their team in work ethic, regulation, and accountability.

Brandon Adcock, Nugenix

Uphold Poor Communication

Poor communication is the best way to cause employee resentment. Bad communication often leads to confusion and a lack of purpose for employees. From here, many problems arise and lead to an overall toxic environment and uninspired workers. Management that is not engaging and has weak listening skills, constant lack of clarity around projects, different employees receiving different messages, passive-aggressive communication, and constant “off-hours” communication are a few of many ways poor communication will cause employee resentment.

Michelle Arnau, Rowan

Play Favorites

Playing favorites can be hurtful to employees. When some employees are favored, others may wonder why they are not being treated the same way. It is important to treat all of your employees with respect and encouragement.

Drew Sherman, Carvaygo

Micromanage Every Task and Keep Checking in

A good employee is one who understands responsibilities and tasks and puts to work essential skills to carry them out. A good manager or leader is one who respects boundaries and, with minimal interference, inspires employees to do their best. However, if an employee is constantly told what to do and how to do it or is constantly finding a superior checking in on progress and quality, it proves to be more than just a dampener. It shows distrust in the employee’s capabilities. Under these circumstances, it is natural for employees to develop resentment towards constant supervision that arises from distrust.

Eva Taylor, WP Buffs

Have Bad Leadership

Bad leadership is a sure-fire way to cause employee resentment. It can seep into every fiber of an organization. There are the micromanaging bosses who constantly correct you, undermine your decisions, and ultimately make your job harder. Then there’s the unaccountable boss who is quick to pass mistakes on to anyone but themselves. Some bosses just don’t show you proper respect by emailing at all hours, forgets how to spell, or even worse, don’t know your name, and doesn’t even know what you do. Leadership sets the tone for how others behave at work. Bad leadership is the foundation of a toxic workplace, inevitably leading to employee resentment.

Datha Santomieri, Steadily

Act Superior and Talk Down to Employees

Gone are the days when those holding a higher position could talk down to or berate employees. In the modern world, every person in an organization expects to be treated with respect. Every employee understands that an organizational hierarchy is crucial in maintaining a work environment where powers and responsibilities are divided to enhance the growth of the business. However, what employees do not like is being reminded of this hierarchy and power ratio by those holding higher positions and being made to feel inferior.

Larissa Pickens, Everfumed

Be All Talk and No Action

Being all talk and no action when it comes to standing up for employees’ interests. Talk is cheap–it’s easy for a manager to say they’re willing to work with employees on time-off, HR and salary issues, but totally different to be actually good on those promises. People notice–and it will unfailingly lead to employee resentment. Don’t be the employer who talks like the work environment is good and healthy, when you aren’t setting good work/time-off boundaries for your employees or standing up for victims in harassment issues. Back up your talk with action.

John Jacob, Hoist

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