Are Your Employees Deserving or Entitled?

Entitlement has always been a part of our workforce, to some degree. We value and encourage individuality, so what may have been hidden before has simply become more visible. A gradual adjustment. Until COVID, that is. Now employee entitlement is showcased as today’s main attraction. 

The pandemic presented us with a world of constraints and impositions. At times, it even felt like an impingement on our rights. We have since escaped the confines, but its legacy remains. The result, a heightened contention for what is ‘ours’, is fiercely fought for even at work. 

How do you know if your employees are duly deserving or entitled? 

Understanding Entitlement in the Workplace

Entitlement in the workplace, or anywhere for that matter, is an unattractive behaviour. Entitled individuals believe they deserve more than others, with an increased belief in their ‘rights’ no matter the rules or norms. Simply put, a different set of rules apply to them. They see themselves as an exception. If your team are on the receiving end of a colleague’s entitled behaviour, they are likely feeling belittled, dismissed, and disregarded. Team morale will be low, and worse, it will become a cultural norm. 

The other fallout from the pandemic is the global skills shortage. The ‘great resignation’ was closely followed, feeding, and encouraging entitlement. Accepting promotions without any significant form of extension of self, no extra effort or time invested on coming up to speed, is an example of entitlement in its most spoiled form. As is expecting a salary increase simply for being present. 

Examples of Entitled Behaviours

Booking annual leave or time off without checking first or following company procedures would be acting in an entitled way. The fact, as their employer, you may have very little choice but to ‘suck it up’ is beside the point. Every relationship in the workplace deserves respect, including the respect employees show towards management.

Entitled workers claim kudos for work they made little contribution to. They ask for assistance when, really, they are hoping for someone else to do their work and one that stands out the most, expecting others to pick up their workload because ‘their’ family, sport, study commitments, etc., are always a priority. 

At first, you might consider your employee’s action as being assertive or setting good boundaries. So you let it go. However, assertive employees with good boundaries show manners, respect, and gratitude. Entitled employees don’t. Instead, they take from you and the team. Vampire-like, it can be draining.  

The Role of Gratitude

Gratitude differentiates those deserving employees from the entitled. Deserving employees put in the effort, try, and earn what they receive. They reciprocate with thanks and appreciation. Employees who are deserving show an interest in their job, the business, and the greater team. Their focus can be on themselves, but not at the expense of the group. 

Deserving employees are also assertive. They ask for salary increases or flexibility at work but do so in a non-defensive manner and not as a given. They present a business case with valid reasons and consider the organisation, not just themselves. Deserving employees are a pleasure to work with, with a balance of reciprocated give and take. 

Considering Entitlement in a Different Light

But what if we considered entitlement in a different light? Maybe what we are experiencing from our employees is less about entitlement and more about vulnerability and fear. For many, the post-pandemic and economic challenges changed our entire outlook on how to cope with uncertainty, leaving us little choice but to look out for ourselves. This easily shifts to the extreme of the ‘me first’ motto. 

The unique experience of the pandemic cannot be underestimated. How people dealt with it and will continue to deal with it for decades to come must not be ignored. Instead, recognise that some behaviours might not be what they seem and may disguise themselves as sensitivity instead. Some calm, patience, and understanding while addressing the perceived entitled behaviour may strike the balance in today’s workplace.

What about us, the employers? We also remain fragile in some regards, even the toughest of us. Let’s be aware that we too, as we label quickly what we don’t like, are perhaps jerking the pendulum sharply back the other way. Are we projecting our sense of employer rights and entitlement, claiming back what we see as our ‘own’? It cuts both ways.