Despair Inc.™: Benefits of a Demotivated Workforce

I'm Lawrence Kersten, Co-Founder and COO of Despair, Inc. And today I'm going to talk to you about the signs of a demotivated workforce. Now one of the perennial problems that managers and executives face is motivating their employees. And despite all of the work that's been done on all of the incentive plans that have been developed, motivating employees is still a problem in need of a solution.

Well at Despair, Inc. we believe the problem is trying to motivate employees and we believe instead that you should try and demotivate your employees. So what I'd like to do today is explain seven signs of a demotivated workforce and explain the benefits that we've experienced at Despair, Inc.

The first sign of a demotivated employee is a feeling of powerlessness. Employees who feel powerless over their lives tend to be satisfied with less. Because they feel like they have no control over their life, they feel like anything they do could perhaps create even bigger problems than the ones they're experiencing now, so they tend to be satisfied with whatever they've got.

The second sign of a demotivated employee is they tend to feel like they are victims of a hostile fate. They feel like any changes they might make are going to be like going from the frying pan into the fire. So consequently they tend to be very loyal to the organization. And as a result of their loyalty, this tends to reduce turnover and as a result of reducing turnover, that saves the company money.

The third sign of a demotivated worker is they tend to feel low self-esteem. Now we have all been taught that low self-esteem is a bad thing. But the benefit of this is it tends to eliminate the need for employee recognition. Employees who have low self-esteem tend to want to avoid the spotlight. Consequently the last thing they want is a recognition program, and we know how expensive these programs are. So eliminating those tends to help the bottom line.

The fourth sign of a demotivated worker is acute defensiveness. As a result of their feeling defensive, they do extra work as a means of ingratiating themselves to executives. Now any time you can get an employee to do extra work, particularly for something as irrelevant as ingratiation, that's a good thing.

The fifth sign is employees feel acute self-doubt. As a result of their self-doubt, they will work very hard as a means of salvaging their identities.

The sixth sign of a demotivated workforce is the employees tend to feel a lack of emotional resilience. Now this is very important, because employees don't want to feel badly about themselves, and so consequently they will work extra hard to avoid humiliation. Though they tend to avoid seeking recognition, they will work very, very hard to avoid humiliation.

And then the seventh sign of a demotivated workforce is intense risk aversion. And this is very, very important, because employees are so unwilling to take any risks on their own, they will tend to be satisfied with simply being an extension of executive ambition. As a result of that, they will essentially do whatever you're asking for, and really that's what we're looking for.

So, at Despair, Inc. we have sought to demotivate our employees and we have experienced the benefits that I've outlined here as a result of our demotivational program, and I would encourage you to do the same.