Research reveals that managers often take advantage of their hardest-working members of staff. David Robson has some advice for a frustrated reader
“I’ve always prided myself on my can-do attitude,” a reader told me this month. “Recently, however, I’ve started to feel resentful of the amount of work my boss puts at my door compared to colleagues. The more I do, the more he seems to expect of me, and I now feel that I’m cracking under the stress.”
Our reader’s frustration is surely justified. A good work ethic should be one of the most highly prized – and rewarded – qualities in an employee. Everyday experience, though, reveals this is rarely the case. Indeed, according toat the National University of Singapore and his colleagues, a pernicious bias can lead managers to exploit the very people they should be prizing.
In one experiment, a group of managers were asked to read about a fictional employee named John, whose company was facing financial difficulties. They had to decide how willing they would be to give John extra hours and responsibilities without any extra pay. The researchers found that the managers were far more willing to do so if they learned that John had proved to be a loyal member of the team – compared with someone who was known to be more detached from their work.
Further studies confirmed that small displays of loyalty encouraged managers to take this attitude: the more “John” gives, the more his managers will take. As Stanley and his co-authors note, this could create a “vicious cycle” of suffering – while less loyal workers manage to escape the sacrifices.
But I can’t help think the onus should be on our managers to change their behaviour. A little self-awareness about their tendency to exploit their hardest workers might lead them to rethink how they reward that loyalty.David Robson is an award-winning science writer and author of The Laws of Connection: 13 social strategies that will transform your life
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