8% of Workers Are Prisoners at Their Companies

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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8% of Workers Are Prisoners at Their Companies

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Some 8% of workers worldwide consider themselves “prisoners” at their own companies. Fortunately for employers, these people have been with their companies a long time and are unlikely to leave.

According to a study by Aon:

These employees who intend to stay with the organization despite being disengaged are who we refer to as “Workforce Prisoners.” They lack the motivation to give their best and have no intention of leaving.

Also:

These employees represent about 8% of the global workforce. That may not seem like a lot, but consider this: in an organization of 50,000 that means that there are, on average, about 4,000 Prisoners. That’s 4,000 employees who are keeping you from achieving your goals.

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Most of these people are so-called lifers:

Someone who has worked at an organization less than a year has approximately a six-percent chance of being a Prisoner. In the one to two year tenure category, the incidence rate increases to 6.3% and climbs in each subsequent tenure category until it reaches a stunning high of 17.1% for the 26+ year category.

What can their bosses do?

If the Prisoner can’t get excited about these topics, then a more difficult conversation has to happen. As mentioned above, the longer someone stays with an organization, the more likely they are to become a Prisoner. Remember that not everyone is willing to be engaged. If that is the case, begin discussions around whether or not this role is the right fit for them or if another job would be better. These can be difficult conversations to have, but are important for both you and the Prisoner in the long term.

Being fired is better in the long term?

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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