The 6 main causes of demotivation in the workplace

These are the main causes behind demotivation at work in companies.

It is obvious that some jobs are more motivating than others. Most people have gone through very demotivating work experiences.

But... why does the phenomenon of demotivation at work occur? With this article we will know some of the main reasons that turn some types of work into a real ordeal for those who have to do it and what are the differences with respect to those that are motivating.

What are the main causes of work demotivation?

Few things are worse to face a long day of work than to do it fighting against different causes of the labor demotivation. When what you do, for one reason or another, does not produce a minimum of satisfaction, every day seems eternal and we can even experience psychological symptoms with changes in our mood, or signs of anxiety and / or depression..

The causes of demotivation at work make this a very frequent phenomenon. In fact, Spain is one of the developed countries with the highest rate of dissatisfied workers, accounting for almost 30% of the total. This is a very worrying figure, as it indicates that 3 out of every 10 Spanish employees feel dissatisfied at work, and therefore it is very likely that they are suffering from several of the causes of job demotivation.

The process that generates the causes of work demotivation, in addition to having consequences for the employee himself, also has consequences for the company, because a person who is not at ease in his job, more than likely will have a performance far below what he could experience if he were motivated with his task. Therefore, it is a problem that the organization must face up toIt is therefore a problem that the organization must address, because it is losing a value that can sometimes be very significant.

Sometimes, by establishing a series of changes that do not have to be especially costly for the company, a motivational effect can be generated on the employee workforce, by reducing the causes of work demotivation, which results in a very significant increase in productivity, and this is a question that many companies overlook.

What are the causes of demotivation at work?

We have seen the repercussions of the various causes of demotivation at work, but now let's take a closer look at what these causes may be.

1. A low salary

Indeed, the first idea that comes to mind when we think of the possible causes of demotivation at work is a low salary. It is important to keep in mind that money is not an infinite source of motivation.. There are studies that show that, after a certain point, the salary increase ceases to be motivational. But it is necessary to reach that minimum if we want to prevent the worker from falling into a spiral of demotivation.

It is possible to try to complement a low salary with other types of incentives, but in the medium term, if the salary remains in a lower range than the person feels he or she deserves, it will not be long before one of the main causes of demotivation at work appears. Therefore, if the employer wants to avoid a high turnover among his employees and wants to obtain maximum productivity from them, he has to take care of the salary part.. On the contrary, it is to be expected that the employee will leave the company as soon as he/she has an opportunity.

Lack of recognition

Another of the most frequent causes of demotivation at work is simply the lack of recognition. If a person strives in his job to give the best version of himself and thus offer an admirable productivity, but only finds indifference and even a negative attitude towards him, it is most likely that the motivation of that person plummets.

It is not enough to be compensated for our work with a fair salary. People also need to have other needs met, and recognition is one of the most important. The feeling of injustice that may arise if this does not occur may trigger a loss of interest in the task performed, and thus lead to lower productivity and therefore efficiency.The feeling of injustice that can arise if this does not happen can lead to a loss of interest in the task performed, and therefore to lower productivity and therefore efficiency.

Something as simple as letting the employee know how important his task is, congratulating him for the results achieved, or valuing his involvement in the company's projects, can be a differential factor, and does not even imply a cost for the company, simply a more efficient management of human resources, so this factor should not be taken lightly, far from it.

3. Lack of a career plan

Stagnation at work, the belief that you have reached a ceiling or that you cannot evolve any further in your job, that you are not even of a certain responsibility, or that you are not even in a position of responsibility, or that you are not even in a position of responsibility.Another cause of demotivation at work is the lack of a career plan. Maslow's well-known pyramid tells us that the pinnacle of needs is self-fulfillment. Therefore, if we believe that we can go further, do more complex or more satisfying tasks, but we are not given the opportunity to do so, it is reasonable to think that motivation will drop.

If, as employers, we want to have employees with a high level of motivation, a good strategy is to devise motivation plans, a good strategy is to design career plans whose criteria are clear and defined, and everyone is aware of them.. With this method, an employee who has the necessary ambition to want to grow and reach higher positions in the company, will know exactly which is the path to follow and the actions to take to advance in his career, and therefore his motivation will increase.

4. Cognitive dissonance

A question that can also be one of the causes of demotivation at work is the cognitive dissonance that can arise between the employee's ideals and the behaviors he or she is forced to perform in the workplace. If there is a conflict between these two variables, the employee will have less and less desire to perform his tasks. This is a very powerful phenomenon, because it directly attacks the person's values.

Therefore, in order to overcome it and be highly motivated, the other factors must be particularly powerful, otherwise it is likely that the employee's beliefs will win the battle and he or she will opt to leave the job. and opt to leave their job in search of another one that does not produce this unhappiness.. The causes can be very personal, as they depend on each individual.

Some clear examples would be to be a vegan and animalist and work in a meat company, to be anti-smoking and work in a tobacco company, to be against gambling and work in a betting house, etc. Obviously, the logical thing is that, having a set of values, you should avoid at the beginning specific jobs that attack your beliefs head-on (such as the examples we have seen) (like the examples we have seen), but sometimes economic needs make people, sadly, have to renounce to this concordance.

5. Monotony

It may happen that a person receives a reasonably good salary, feels valued by those in charge, and has no moral conflicts about the tasks performed. However, your work may be particularly tedious and monotonous, either because of the repetitive nature of the actions you have to perform, or because of periods of very low workload that force you to remain for a long time without doing anything in particular, or other similar situations.

This monotony would be added to the list of causes of work demotivation. And the fact is that the lack of variety in tasks, a work environment with no dynamism at allThe lack of variety in tasks, a work environment with no dynamism whatsoever, or long periods of time in which there is literally no work to be done at all, lead to boredom in the worker, which, of course, translates into a more negative perception of his or her job and, therefore, of motivation towards it.

6. Poor communication

The last of the causes of demotivation at work is the one that affects communication in the company, a key factor. It is possible that the worker sees most of the criteria we have seen as satisfied, but nevertheless has serious problems in communicating with his superiors. serious problems in communicating with his superiors.. The information he receives about his duties may be incomplete, contradictory or, much worse, not even provided at all.

The problem can also arise in the other direction. Suppose that the employee observes an incident and tries to report it to those in charge, but there are no defined channels for doing so, or he reports it but receives no response. All these situations can make the employee feel frustrated, isolated or that he does not have the necessary tools for a correct performance of his functions, causing his motivation to be diminished.

Bibliographical references:

• Más, J.L. (2005). Motivación laboral y gestión de recursos humanos en la teoría de Frederick Herzberg. Management in the third millennium.
• Rodríguez Wilches, V.D. (2018). Demotivation, a critical problem for customer service. Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá. Business Information Center.
• Salazar, M.; Northía, A.G.. (2016). La Motivación Laboral en el Sector de Servicios¿ Qué hace que un trabajador realiza más de lo que se espera? Revista empresarial.