THINGS ARE GETTING QUIETER IN THE WORKPLACE

We have already experienced that working from home structurally does not benefit our relationships with our colleagues. Using the participation barometer[1], professor Peggy De Prins investigated whether Covid also had an impact on the extent to which employees say what’s on their mind in the organisation.

She uses the term employee silence, the mirror image of the more common concept of employee voice. This umbrella term bundles all the ways in which employees can participate and voice their opinion. This can be done both directly, for example by giving everyone the opportunity to speak freely during a meeting, and more indirectly through staff representation in social dialogue. Participation is organised formally (or not), but can also be realised through informal channels: your boss who really listens, for example, when you say to them while you’re waiting for the lift that the new work organisation is causing considerable delay.

Who remains silent?

But even a well-developed culture of employee participation does not rule out that employees choose, consciously or unconsciously, not to voice their opinion. Professor De Prins uses the term employee silence to describe this. The study of 1,600 employees (from various job groups and ages) from a broad spectrum of organisations shows that no fewer than 21% of the employees interviewed have remained silent more since Covid than before. What’s painful is that 40% even admits that the social climate in the organisation in general has deteriorated: more calculation, more reservation, more uncertainty, less nuance and more alienation.

Who remains silent? 18% of the surveyed employees are persistent in their remaining silent. In this group, we find more part-time colleagues, more executive and lower-skilled profiles, and more employees working in medium-sized organisations. The group of employees who would rather stay quiet is more limited in both really small and really large organisations. On the other hand, almost a third of the group surveyed is part of the hard core of ‘speakers’, who like to take every opportunity to share their opinion.

Why do we remain silent?

Professor De Prins notices a few factors. Firstly, there are quite a few colleagues who just don’t want ’to be difficult’. Things are complicated enough already, my opinion on top of that won’t bring us any closer to a solution. On the other hand, there is also the more uncertain, reserved silence. Giving negative feedback is often uncomfortable, it requires self-confidence and the competence to express your own ideas in a constructive way if they go against the current. And finally, there is a considerable group who think giving input is pointless in the current organisational reality. Remaining silent then becomes more of a demonstration of resignation or even cynicism.

A typically Belgian characteristic, according to professor De Prins, is the combinations of a relatively large power distance (or the extent to which hierarchy plays a role in social relationships, in this case within the company or institution) and, at the same time, a pronounced degree of individualism. Sometimes this entails a difficult dichotomy, as a result of which shadow behaviour, for example in the form of not expressing out loud what one thinks about the manager in question, is relatively common.

What do we remain silent about?

Firstly, concerns about workload and work organisation are not voiced and those are the two issues that have only become more acute in recent months, because of everyone working from home.

In any case, the reactions of the employees surveyed make it clear that a deliberate organisational policy is needed to compensate for the impact of working from home. More dialogue, more organised consultation and more explicit efforts to establish a culture of negotiability in which employees don‘t only see the opportunity, but also want to express their experience. It won’t only benefit the connection between the employees, but also bring out the collective wisdom more.

[1] A collaboration between SD Worx, Jobat and AMSTh