Unhappy Employees: Constructive or Destructive Response to Job Dissatisfaction

This essay explores the ways in which unhappy employees respond to job dissatisfaction, either constructively or destructively. It discusses the factors that contribute to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and how organizations can improve job satisfaction. The essay also examines various theories of job satisfaction and the impact of job satisfaction on employee productivity and personal wellbeing.

Running head: Business Communication
Business Communication

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Unhappy employees respond either constructively or destructively to their job
dissatisfaction
In this essay the light is thrown on the unhappy employees, how they deal with job
dissatisfaction. Job dissatisfaction can be treated in a constructive way or destructive manner
that varies upon person to person. Satisfaction with the job defines the nature of a person; if
a person is satisfied with the job they hold positive feeling whereas the person with job
dissatisfaction hold negative feeling towards work. It is necessary to maintain job satisfaction
as happy workers are productive workers. Job satisfaction depends upon number of elements
thus it is necessary to evaluate the behavioural pattern of a person to see that job is
responding in a constructive manner or not.
Job satisfaction solely lies upon the personal behaviour and beliefs. It affects the
attitude of a person, if a person is not satisfied by his/her job this may lead to dissatisfaction
in personal life also. Job satisfaction depends upon the performance of an individual. If a
person is performing up to the mark they will get apperception and rewards with time, this
would future enhance an individual to work harder (Michalak, Kiffin‐Petersen & Ashkanasy,
2018). On the other hand in some cases due to poor performance they lose the confidence to
work. If an employee is not performing good then they are asked to resign the job, which in
turn leads to search of new job but with low satisfaction. Job satisfaction also depends on the
factor where an employee is working, if he/she is working at a position he don’t want to will
cause job dissatisfaction (Darrat, Amyx & Bennett, 2017). In general, the people who are
satisfied with their job attend the workplace on regular basis and unhappy employees find
reasons to take leaves. It is important to link the correlation of various variables that cause
job dissatisfaction.
Satisfaction towards job can either lead to constructive or destructive outcome. It
totally depends upon how a person analyses the situation. If an individual takes the failure in
a positive manner it may help them to grow (Skogstad, Nielsen & Einarsen, 2017). Low job
satisfaction can motivate a person to perform well and be satisfied. Thus it is true that an
unhappy employee can see dissatisfaction in a constructive way by working hard or on the
other hand may lead to depression or lack of confidence. In every organisation several
policies are designed to improve job satisfaction, as satisfaction towards work grasps more
productivity. To increase job satisfaction numerous actions are taken; friendly policies are
applied for every employee to decrease dissatisfaction (Mishra, 2015). For improving the

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employee’s attitude towards work clarity and fairness go hand and hand. On the other hand
providing extra salary benefits could help in motivating an employee to work well. If
employees are satisfied with the wages they would manage to work longer. Jon satisfaction
could be increased by allowing employees to build social relation among them (Fatimah,
Moelyati & Syailendra, 2016). If unhappy employees work in a team they could enhance
their productivity and success by learning from their co-workers.
(Featurepicture, 2018)
Job satisfaction depends upon the way a person look at the situation. Dissatisfaction
can either help a person to grow in a better way or can demotivate the person to get
unemployed. Working environment is one of the contributing factors in getting satisfaction.
The workplace environment should be positive to keep employees happy. On the other hand,
supervisors should make sure that the employees are assigned the role according to their
talent to enhance their satisfaction (Muzanenhamo, 2016).
Job dissatisfaction can be taken by an individual in different ways they can be either
be constructive or destructive. Some destructive responses of a person after job
dissatisfaction are either they exit the job or they neglect their performance by showing
absenteeism. The dissatisfaction can be treated in a constructive manner by raising the voice
in an organisation. This can be done when an employee take an initiative to improve the
conditions at the organisation (Pradhan & Manju, 2016). Loyalty can also be a constructive
way to see dissatisfaction as an employee can keep an optimistic hope for improvement.

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Job satisfaction depends upon the motivation and demotivation level. Factors that lead
to dissatisfaction are poor pay, poor compensation, poor working conditions and lack of job
security. When these factors are optimal job dissatisfaction will be eliminated (Sharma, Goel,
Singh, Sharma & Gupta, 2014). However, these factors can increase job satisfaction by
practising good leadership practises, supporting personal growth and providing clear
objectives and directions.
The relation between job satisfaction and dissatisfaction provides clues regarding the
importance of working conditions (Judge, Weiss, Kammeyer-Mueller & Hulin, 2017).
Education and job security show strong co-relation with the satisfaction of job. Highly
educated people hold permanent job on contrast to unsatisfied employees. Job autonomy also
has a strong co-relation with job satisfaction. The participation of employees in an
organisation depends upon their satisfaction level.
Job satisfaction of a person is directly linked to their productivity, motivation, health
and personal job satisfaction. It is true that emotional state of a person is affected by its
satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Unhappy employees mostly link their job failure with their
personal failure and they significantly affect their personal wellbeing (Skaalvik & Skaalvik,
2015). The satisfaction or dissatisfaction of job have emotional, behavioural and cognitive
component. They can have negative effect on an individual by causing anxiety, stress or bad
job experience. It depends on how a person creates job satisfaction as it can lead to positive
attitude by gaining positive attitude from disappointment. Satisfaction can also be of two
types, that is globally satisfaction and facet satisfaction (Lee, Back & Chan, 2015). Global
satisfaction means when a person is satisfied with the overall job feeling and facet
satisfaction means they are satisfied with some conditions.
There exists a myth that happy employees are more productive and leads to
constructive development for the company. If an individual takes dissatisfaction in a
constructive way this would lead to overall life satisfaction. Research suggested that life
satisfaction is influence by job satisfaction. Another construct to remain happy in a job is by
getting engaged with co-workers (Jessen,2015). Dissatisfaction of job can be responded by
unhappy employees in either a constructive or destructive manner. The organisation also

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suffers from the consequence of poor job satisfaction as they have high turnover ratio, which
is loss for the company. As training of new employees is a timing consuming process this
happen due to high absenteeism in an organisation. Plus to take the dissatisfaction in a
constructive way can help in improving the performance. As productivity and morale to work
are closely related and affects the economy of an organisation.
According to the recent survey conducted by Right management it was found that not
everyone could be satisfied with their job. On an average 37% of individuals were found to
be totally unsatisfied with their job. Majority of the unhappy employees are planning to leave
their jobs as they are not satisfied but most important their satisfaction depends upon how
they act on the situation (Womenday, 2018). The main areas of job dissatisfaction are being
underpaid when an employee feel that they are not paid up to the mark. To build
dissatisfaction in a constructive manner various theories are undertaken like expectancy
theory which is based on the belief that an individual effort may result in valuable reward and
giving the motivation to improve the performance of an organisation.
(Employeesurvey, 2018)
In majority of cases job satisfaction is treated in a destructive manner by quitting the
job. This is not a single step but it covers various intermediate steps which an employee
undertaking before quitting the job. Environmental culture of a workplace can give the
motivation to employees to work happily. To boost the job satisfaction among employees the
core values should be established consistently. Dissatisfaction can be turned into satisfaction
by showing strong leadership and removing disappointments. Communicating with the
employees on regular basis can help in changing their future plans in a productivity manner.
Many companies organises conferences to enhance job satisfaction. Stagnation can lead to

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destructive damage as employees have more talent than their current level of functionality
thus encouraging them can help in fulfilling their satisfaction. To build satisfaction among
employee training programs and online mentoring are used to encourage staff.
There are various theories used to find the job satisfaction. Motivator- hygiene theory
is used to find job dissatisfaction or satisfaction. Motivating factors are needed to meet the
satisfaction of an employee and meet the achievement to be happy (Chen, Brown, Bowers &
Chang, 2015). On the other hand, certain hygiene factors contribute in job dissatisfaction.
These two factors are not related to each other but whenever hygiene factors are low the
motivating factors should be kept high. It can be concluded that motivators help employee to
be satisfied. Another theory used is dispositional approach that states that job satisfaction is
related to the personality of a person (Cox, Teoh & Hassard, 2017). An individual perception
towards work contributes in deciding the level of dissatisfaction. If a person sees job
dissatisfaction with negative mind-set can decrease their self-esteem or efficiency.
Unhappy employees often treat their job in a destructive manner as they do not focus
on work efficiently because mentally they are not stable. The negative thoughts regarding the
job can never help a person to grow. It decreases the efficiency to work well and observe
anything in a positive manner. To reduce this impact tan organisation should practise certain
plans to build job satisfaction. On the other hand job satisfaction solely depends upon the
attitude of an employee towards his or her work. Dissatisfaction arises when they treat the job
with the negative attitude. Dissatisfaction depends on organisational, personal as well as
working factors. Level of education, age, promotion, salaries contributes to the working
condition and level of satisfaction. Dissatisfaction can help in growing the carer in a
constructive manner by not letting the emotion grow in terms of disappointment. If an
individual take step to turn negative emotion into positive emotion it could help in restoring
satisfaction. In general extra level of stress can lead negative impact and future to
discouragement.

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(Vangel, 2018)
Unhappy employees take more stress everyday by constantly thinking about the lack
of self-worth or enthusiasm to work. Being unhappy can cause health issues that may lead to
depression. Job Descriptive Index designed a way to find job satisfaction by measuring the
reasons that are affecting the satisfaction of employees. Constructive or destructive response
depends upon how an employee reacts to the situation (Vangel, 2018). Some employees look
the dissatisfaction in a negative manner by simply looking for a change of job or putting
fewer efforts into the work. Few employees look at the dissatisfaction with different
perceptive by trying to understand what the supervisors actually ant or try to find solution to
attain satisfaction. They seek for suggestions from supervisor to find solution and work
efficiently. If unhappy employees keep patience and trust the organisation on their decisions
will help them grow optimistically.
It can be concluded that unhappy employees can either treat their job dissatisfaction in
a constructive or in a destructive way. Unhappy employees treat their job in a destructive way
lead to have negative impact in their life it also increase the cost of an organisation by
diminishing the productivity. Unhappy employees also put less effort in their work by just
doing minimum level of work. If an employee looks at the dissatisfaction in a positive way it
would enhance their productivity by working on their mistakes or learning from supervisors.
On the other hand, some employees get depressed by the job dissatisfaction and take step of
leaving the job.

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