The epidemic of job disaffection compromises the results

Gallup, in State of the Global Workplace Report, considers that a worker is involved in his work when he is enthusiastic about what he does, feels (psychologically) the owner, and produces and innovates to move the organization forward. According to this definition, the job portrait of today's world published by Gallup is very disappointing: only 15% of employees are motivated, while 67% are unmotivated and worse, 18% are actively unmotivated... In Spain, these figures are even worse, as can be seen in the following chart prepared by Corporate Rebels in "The way we work is broken". In fact, the Spanish results, with half the number of motivated workers than the world average, are the worst in the series of the ten selected countries.

Unsurprisingly, disaffection influences organizations' results, and to make this obvious, Gallup compares Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work" companies with those with the lowest levels of motivation. The results in the following graph (also from Corporate Rebels) are devastating, since companies with the most involved workers are 22% more productive, generating 21% more profits for their shareholders, showing 37% less absenteeism, 48% fewer accidents at work and 41% fewer defects in the quality of its products and services.

Health professionals: burnout and patient safety

In a globally unmotivated world of work, the burnout epidemic is very worrying in the health sector; a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion and reduced commitment to patients and clinical work. Experts point out that half of the doctors and nurses have at least one sign of emotional exhaustion. The problem, therefore, is inspiring and, according to Andreu Segura in "Iatrogenesis and exhaustion of doctors", expanded by a systematic review that included not only doctors but all health professionals, this discomfort, as expected, is associated with deficiencies in patient safety.

Being satisfied at work isn’t an end in itself, but it is essential. In fact, it is the foundation of everything. Management autonomy is, therefore, the only way out. Let's not be confused. It isn’t a matter of privatizing anything, only of exercising the public function with less regulatory rigour and more confidence.

Jordi Varela
Editor