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The Conference Board Review® Article
The Psychological Recession
Why your people don’t seem all that excited about coming to work these days.
By Judith M. Bardwick
Judith M. Bardwick is a La Jolla, Calif.-based consultant, specializing in the psychology of the corporate environment, and author of
A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the twenty-first century: People stopped caring about their jobs.
Until relatively recently, the most important stakeholders in American organizations were the employees. They came to work each day with commitment, loyalty, even passion, and because they sensed that the company felt the same commitment toward them, they gave it their all.
But after years of downsizing, outsourcing, and a cavalier corporate attitude that treats employees as costs rather than assets, most of today's workers have concluded that the company no longer values them. So they, in turn, no longer feel engaged in their work or committed to the company. The reality of mutual codependence between employees and organizations, and the advantages gained from long-term mutual commitment and engagement, have been lost.
As many as two-thirds of U.S. employees are either actively looking for new jobs or merely going through the motions at their current jobs. While they still show up for work each day, in the ways that really count, many have quit. Figuratively, and in some cases literally, they already have one foot out the door.
They are afflicted with a condition I call the psychological recession. It is an emotional state in which people feel extremely vulnerable and afraid for their futures. It is especially relevant in the business world because chronically fearful people are too exhausted to be creative and innovative. They expect the worst to happen, so they see no reason to give their all.
Risky BusinessA psychological recession — a dour view of the present and an even bleaker view of the future — is a natural outcome of a deep and sustained sense of vulnerability. Once established, this negative mindset reinforces people's view that the world is a risky place in which they have little or no control. In this way, the psychological recession feeds on itself. It increases people's fears and their aversion to risk.
There are real issues to worry about: the war in Iraq and terrorism; the fearsome outcome of the spread of a militant and radical form of Islam; rising energy prices and our continued dependence on foreign oil; and, perhaps worst of all, the very visible and widespread loss of job security.
For most people, the issue of job security is the mother lode of anxiety poisoning their view of reality. They have seen, or heard about, or read about, the people who have been laid off, through no fault of their own, and they are terrified they may be next. Economic hard times initially had an impact on hourly workers, but then the impact spread to well-educated knowledge workers. As tax receipts fell, even government workers faced cuts in their ranks. Everyone knows someone who has been affected.
This sense of helpless vulnerability is heightened by the onslaught of news stories about the juggernaut economies of China and India and about the increasing lack of competitiveness in our education systems and businesses. This deep mood of pessimism shouts, We are doomed!
Labor is strangely quiet. The unemployment rate over the last five years has averaged 5 percent or lower, which generally means labor is becoming scarce and thus more valuable. That, in times past, would result in an increase in worker militancy and high demands. Yet there has been almost no response to cuts in jobs or benefits to those employed and retired. In all likelihood, members of organized labor, like everyone else, are paralyzed by their deep feeling of vulnerability to a loss of jobs. (Another factor, surely, is the falling rate of workforce participation.)
Comments? Write a letter to the editor.
Return to the May/June 2008 The Conference Board Review® issue.
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