Unwanted, unloved and ignored

PHOTO | FILE A stressed man. Staff stratification at the workplace is caused by our traditionally inclined culture, thinking and management ways.   NATION

In Summary

•  Staff stratification is slowly taking root in some Kenyan companies based on the perceived importance of individual contributions to the company’s well being.
• What the managers seem not to understand is that, if an employee feels unworthy, the first victim is the company, not the staffer

By Wilson Manyuira

In June 2014, the plight of one employee in the US caused a stir between trade unionists and employers’ federations.

Ms Carol Geary, a 51-year-old librarian, had lost her job for flouting her employer’s regulation of working at home while on sick leave, but she said she had a good reason for the no-show.

Since she was young, Ms Geary had always nurtured a passion for librarianship, and as we are always told to follow our hearts and passions, she dedicated her life to this field.

But she loved her job so much, and dedicated so much energy to it, that she ended up in hospital after she passed out one afternoon while at work.

Doctors diagnosed her with high-level depression that stemmed from prolonged stigma, exclusion, constant emotional turmoil, ridicule and a feeling that she was not considered “part of the team” at her workplace, even though her contribution to the company indicated otherwise.

This, in effect, affected her mental ability to continue working productively under such hostile circumstances. Stretched beyond her limit, she passed out.

Hell would break loose, however, when she reported back to work after considerable time at the hospital.

The management informed her that she had been relieved of her duties and her pension claims would be withheld since she had absconded duty.

Due to the nature of her job as an information provider at the organisation, she felt she was always considered subordinate, colleagues constantly teased her of “what a wrong career she treasured”, she was never consulted regarding anything important at the organisation, and any idea she came up with was always ignored.

This led to depression, but the company held out that there was no sufficient evidence that her emotional problems were out of bullying at work and immediately sacked her. After all, she had not reported these bullying and exclusion incidents she claimed, she had no physical injuries and — especially — she had failed to work from home as the company regulations stipulate.

Her depression must have been out of personal or family issues which the company was not responsible for, her managers said.

Ms Geary’s story might have happened in a different economic environment thousands of kilometres away from Kenya, but psychologists and organisational sociologists say that cases of staff stratification and exclusion have been reported locally.

Dr Geoffrey Wango, a counselling psychologist and organisational behaviour coach, says the consequences of such exclusion might be “even worse” among Kenyan employees.

“When an employee feels left out and believes he or she is considered ‘other than’ rather than ‘part of’, the employee’s loyalty, commitment and productivity in the organisation is detrimentally affected,” says Dr Wango, adding that the employee will feel a lesser person or a non-entity. From there onwards, the employee’s only business in the organisation becomes to get a way of paying his or her bills.

When that happens, says Dr Wango, it stratifies the staff based on the perceived importance of individual contributions to the company’s well being.

RESORTING TO THE MANDATORY

“If a particular employee feels his or her contributions are not considered worthy, the employee will withdraw from an active and initiative-based contribution to the company and instead resort to only the mandatory.”

Mr Allan Korongo, a sociology lecturer at the University of Nairobi, agrees, adding that the feeling by an employee that he or she is considered peripheral is brought about by two things: either because he or she has inferiority complex, or is treated that way by those in the top echelons.

At his workplace at the UoN, Mr Korongo says he regularly interacts with some senior security officers, some of whom are paid better than him, yet they still treat him as their superior and even call him “Prof”.

But, while Mr Korongo argues that such feelings of inferiority are normal at the workplace and nothing much can be done about it, Dr Wango feels otherwise, and points out that no employee should be made to feel more important than the other, whether by circumstance or treatment.

“It’s like the body,” explains Dr Wango. “Would you say your mouth is more important than your ankle just because it is more prominently placed?”

In his opinion, problems of staff stratification at the workplace have been brought about by our traditionally inclined culture, thinking and management ways, which are more common in Third World economies where people in high positions are revered and worshiped.

“If one finds his or her way to the leadership of a company, he or she has already been prepared psychologically to be a boss over people and not a leader, and this is indirectly proportional for the person who ends up a cleaner,” he points out.

Mr Korongo adds that organisational culture could also lead to stratification. “Some organisations have that deep-lying culture that some employees are there to support those who mean “business” so that they can achieve this business and this is an already pre-determined stratification,” he says.

A poor organisational structure, Dr Wango adds, also leads to feelings of inadequacy, especially when staff members are put in layers. “This is a consequence of hierarchical structuring which creates a pyramid of importance,” he says, adding that when you create such an environment, “communication downwards becomes a command and that upwards becomes a request.”

As such, he explains, you find the employee at the bottom keeps communication at its barest minimum while the person at the top engages in all flurry of commands.

When the degree of interaction is curtailed, according to Mr Korongo, many other issues are affected. This includes the employees’ conduct within the organisation, job commitment, loyalty to the company and, most importantly, the ability to take initiative.

As a support staff but not a lesser important staff, Dr Wango observes, you take initiative through the employee above you in order of roles, and if any effective communication is dead, then this will not happen.

“As much as the mainstream staff member may be blamed for treating the support staff unfairly, sometimes this mentality is in the subconscious mind of support staff and the best an organisation can do is reduce the social distance between the two,” offers Mr Korongo.

This, according to him, can be done through informal organisation, which includes social retreats where the support staff get to know the boss is also like him, smoke and swigs like him, loves shopping and dancing like her... and so on, says Mr Korongo.

For Dr Wango, the first step is to change the thinking from authoritarianism and militancy to leadership, and also embracing teamwork rather than commands as “this helps foster inclusiveness”.

When you pull a string, the weaker it becomes, but when you relax it, the strong it gets. And that, according to Dr Wango, is the way organisations ought to work as it cultivates a strong organisational bond and culture.

Of importance, he explains, is empowering staff as this helps build their self-esteem, increase their productivity and also help them value their work no matter how little it seems.

“In organisational behaviour, we also focus on training managers on modern management techniques — such as empowering staff, avoiding negative organisation culture and understanding the human body theorem (each part is vital) — that are independent from the traditional stratification theory,” he concludes.