Manager Anda Malas

Don't feel sorry for your boss - managers admit they're slacking off.

A study by the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) has found that a large percentage of Australian managers aren't putting in, claiming they feel unmotivated and unappreciated. The AIM surveyed 3000 managers around the country. One in five said they were either unmotivated, disengaged, bored or sad about their working conditions. About one in three (36 per cent) said they could be putting in more effort, but they did not feel appreciated by their employer so why bother? Nearly half of them said they were unhappy about the workplace culture (and you would think as managers, they'd be contributing to it).

According the survey results, about 33 per cent were thinking about leaving. It found that 40 per cent said they do not feel appreciated by their employer,  when asked how they felt about working at the organisation, 20 per cent selected one of the following negative words: ‘demotivated’, ‘disengaged’, ‘bored’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’, or ‘apathetic’. It also revealed that 44 per cent disagreed or were undecided as to whether "senior management cultivates good organisational culture within my workplace".

Why is this happening? Smart Company has come up with one reason: one in five, or 22 per cent, say they spend more than eight hours a week in meetings. Yes, eight hours. To think that people are losing one day a week stuck in a meeting room is too scary.

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If the research is right, it tells us that companies are in a lot of trouble. If managers are feeling unmotivated and lazy, the people they are supposed to be supervising would pick up on it, and the malaise would have a knock on effect for the entire team.   

What are the danger signs telling you that the boss is out of it and feeling uninspired? And what impact does that have on the people who are supposed to be working for them?

The symptoms are pretty obvious. Your boss mightn’t have the focus to give you the support and inspiration you need to get a particular project done. Maybe they have become too “comfortable” in their role and they are not driving you and your team forward as they used to. Unmotivated managers could even hold back the careers of people working beneath them, even yours. The result: unmotivated managers who manage uncaring employees who work in and maintain unpleasant workplaces.

Significantly, the AIM found that managers working in smaller organisations employing up to 20 people were happier than their counterparts working for corporations. Respondents at smaller companies were more likely to agree that they cared about the future of their organisation (65 percent versus 49 per cent at bigger companies), they were more likely to feel a sense of loyalty to their company (57 per cent versus 38 per cent) and were more likely to stay with the company.

According to the AIM, people in smaller companies were happier because they were more likely to feel a sense of belonging and purpose. “In small organisations, leadership equity is more easily established because the lines of command and control are much reduced and less complex and therefore the potential to connect with employees is so much greater,” the AIM reported.

The implication: if you work for a big corporation, you are more likely to find work is meaningless.

If you’re a manager, do you agree with the study? Is it a lot harder now working as a manager? Do you feel unmotivated and unappreciated by the company? Do you get lazy? Are you planning to move on?

And for anyone else, is your boss unfocused and uninterested in what you do? Does your boss fail to motivate you? How uninspiring is your boss?