“I still get nightmares. In fact I get them so often I should be used to them by now. I’m not. No one ever really gets used to nightmares.”1
Every day, thousands of people relive their nightmares as they willingly cross the threshold and enter into buildings full of soulless entities. Their sense of dread builds. They quickly hurry to their hiding places. Feeling trapped, they lay low, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Soon, the faint moans of others become audible and they realize that they are not alone. Their goal? Try to avoid the creatures they know will appear.
Talk about feeling disconnected from reality? Is work a cold, unfriendly place? According to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Survey, 70% of all employees are either “Not Engaged” (52%) or “Actively Disengaged” (18%). It’s not a stretch to say that given these percentages, any workplace could become cold, unfriendly. Let’s look at some of the dominating creatures you may encounter.
Monsters – People who love to terrorize you. You never know where they will appear. They get pleasure from making you suffer. They crave power and will stop at nothing to subdue you.
Vampires – People who drain the life of you. They overload you with UGH (Unglamorous Hated) work. They fail to recognize your contributions or worse, take the credit you deserve. They withhold information to keep you in a subservient role.
Zombies – People whose spirit has died. They have given up on affecting change and have given into the creatures that haunt them. They are reanimated by the spell of maintaining the status quo.
Werewolves – Seemingly normal people who transform into animals based on a trigger. Once transformed, they devour anyone near them.
Mummies – People whose vital organs have been removed. They look to other creatures for guidance since they lack brains and hearts needed to empathize with others.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a Halloween story. It’s a nightmare that many disengaged people live each and every day. Is this YOUR nightmare?
How many Monsters, Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, and Mummies haunt your workplace? Which of these creatures is most prominent?
1 Danielewski, Mark Z. Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. New York: Pantheon, 2000. Print.
Let’s Engage!
I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.
Employee engagement is a critical mission. I hope I can count on your help! Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the latest intelligence/insights and/or register to make entries in the comments log.
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Learn more about me at gregoryfsimpson.com.
P.S. First contact? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement community. Explore and join fellow employee engagement operatives in targeting a known thief – alias: Disengagement. Together we can bring this thief to justice and make the world a better place for all companies and their employees.
Other recent Agent in Engagement data/reports by Agent Gregory F Simpson:
- Employee Engagement Intelligence Briefing: 2016.10.17 – 2016.10.21
- Veteran Operative Employee Engagement Insights: 10.17 – 2016.10.21
- The 22 Employee Engagement Personas You Need to Adopt
- How to Organize Your Employee Engagement Sources
- 3 Ways to Learn the Latest About Employee Engagement
- Employee Engagement: I Just Don’t Have Time for That!
- Have Your Cake and Engage It Too!
