Not according to William Tincup, writing under the heading Bad HR on the Fistful of Talent blog. He says: “The simple truth is… engagement is a nice to have, not a need to have. We’ve been brainwashed to believe it is our obligation to manufacture engaged employees. Work is not play, play is not work. Our focus on engagement clouds our judgement. Most jobs suck.”
But then get past the rant and he makes a valid point, albeit inarticulately: “Think critically about engagement. Do you really want happy employees? What if they are happy, but they suck? Do you still want them? What’s more important to your organisation: happiness or competence?
Lastly, I’m tired of people pimping out engagement as if it were some super elixir that fixed everything that ails us. It doesn’t. Truth hurts sometimes.”
Phew…
