It was a typical day in the neighborhood at a small community bank.
That is, until a 2016 Jeep Wrangler was dropped off in the bank’s parking lot by a repo company.
The debtor only made three payments in the first seven months of the life of the loan. And, because the debtor repeatedly ignored phone calls and correspondence from the bank requesting a call to make arrangements to bring the loan current, the repo man was sent.
Upon review of the debtor’s file, it was determined the loan never should have been made. Jessica, the underwriter who approved the loan did a gross miscalculation of the debtor’s debt-to-income ratio. Additionally, she approved the loan with only 5% down instead of the mandatory 12% due to the debtor’s low FICO score.
As it was the fourth time in three months that Jessica made a careless, negligent mistake that led to a substantial financial loss for the bank, she was terminated.
When the president of the bank asked Jessica’s boss what went wrong on what seemed to be such a great hire 14 months prior, he said Jessica was always distracted by her phone and failed to take ownership of her job. Unsatisfied by such a dismissive answer, the president asked a few of Jessica’s coworkers what they thought the problem could have been. One brave soul spoke up and said their boss was overly flirtatious and Jessica was always creeped out by him. Jessica was on her phone all the time because she was looking for a new job and made so many mistakes because she couldn’t think clearly when her boss was in the office.
As Jessica’s boss and the president of the bank were good friends and close neighbors, nothing happened. Everything returned to business as usual.
Two types of disengagement
Some employees become disengaged for reasons that have nothing to do with their employer or work environment. Illness, injuries or major life events, such as losing a loved one, going through a divorce or dealing with any kind of trauma, can be distracting enough to prevent anyone from doing their job well. For these employees, empathy, support and time are the three elixirs employers can offer during a troubled employee’s recovery back to peak performance and productivity.
The employees requiring the most attention are those who become disengaged based on internal issues and/or working within an unhealthy culture. These employees are much more dangerous than many give them credit for, as they are not simply low-productivity team members who Facebook more than they should on the company’s watch.
A single disengaged employee is capable of:
- Costing their employer money due to careless mistakes. When an employee no longer cares, they are less likely to pay attention to details.
- Angering clients into the welcoming arms of a competitor. The last thing you need is to have a disengaged employee interact with a client.
- Spreading discontent. Rarely do disengaged employees keep quiet and operate alone. They confide in others about the displeasure, disappointment or resentment they have toward the company or its leadership team and pollute the minds of others.
- Slowing projects to a crawl. Disengaged employees lack any sense of urgency and cannot be counted on to meet deadlines.
- Forcing their responsibilities of work onto others. Peers will grow increasingly frustrated each time they need to pick up the slack.
- Dragging down morale. Your better performers will grow impatient quickly.
Disengaged employees turn sour for reasons that need to be identified, and fast. If ignored or dismissed for too long, disengagement can escalate to nefariousness when an employee may begin to seek revenge on his or her employer through acts such as stealing, tampering with systems and equipment, disparaging social media posts, and in extreme cases, acts of violence.
It’s the accountant who embezzles tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a few years. It’s the director of IT who blocks a network for ransom. Or maybe it’s someone who sneaks supplies such as ink cartridges and expensive equipment from the supply room to sell on eBay. We hear and read about such corporate revenge all the time.
Your best and only defense is to take action on perceived disengagement sooner rather than later.
