Time change. Today, employees take advantage of a very dynamic labor market and runaway inflation to impose their views on their managers. The demands are many: more telecommuting, more balance between professional and personal life and, above all, substantial salary increases. And the threat to resign often hits the mark.
Therefore, bosses are increasingly stressed by these sequences of negotiations with employees. Sequences that also tend to multiply.
According to a study* OpinionWay for The Trusted Agency, 30% of the leaders surveyed say they fear this moment, a figure that rises to 36% for bosses over 50 years of age.
Negotiation is even a time that generates significant stress for 15% of managers, who dread the idea of dealing with aggressive employees. Women would also be twice as stressed by this idea as men (19 vs. 10%).
Requests considered excessive by a third of bosses
It must be said that with an inverted balance of power, the tension rises. 9% of managers acknowledge having experienced major conflicts caused by negotiations gone wrong.
Especially since 34% of bosses often consider the demands of their employees to be excessive (36% for men and 32% for women). Here again, the proportion of leaders of this opinion increases with the age of the respondents, ranging from 17% of those under 30 years of age to 40% of those over 50 years of age.
Employees, in particular frameslet’s not lose sight of their demands for change, and they are becoming more and more important.
The generalization of a dose of teleworking is already an achievement in many organizations. “There is a fairly strong demand for more organizational freedom in my work,” continues the manager.
“It is quite disturbing. The model that we have known for a hundred years, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., is disappearing for an entire section of trades,” Benoît Serre, vice president of the national network Association of HRDs (ANDRH ).
13% want to avoid these discussions
“We have a little bit of that pressure and an impatient way of employees saying: With everything we’ve been through, why don’t you transform your organization? We are ready for it,” she continues.
This aspiration is also seen in the latest barometer of Cadremploi made by Ifop. 52% of executives surveyed would like to see work schedules adapted.
Apprehension and stress also undermine managers’ confidence, according to the study. 24% even say that they do not consider themselves good enough to carry out these discussions. And more than one in 10 respondents (13%) would even delegate this task to a subordinate to avoid it and 34% would like to be trained or accompanied in this exercise.
*: The interviews were conducted from September 15 to October 6, 2022 with a sample of 440 representative managers of companies with 20 or more employees
Source: BFM TV
