Cognitive Dissonance

Recently, I heard a Psychologist on a news segment discuss a phenomenon called Cognitive Dissonance. Are you familiar?
He was discussing it in the context of explaining how and why new Religions come into existence and how new political parties break off from existing ones. It served as a good explanation for both, but, I think it does a fairly strong job in explaining some of the Great Resignation/Great Re-examination that we are experiencing in today’s labor market.

In an attempt to really distill the definition of Cognitive Dissonance, I’ll simply use Lumen Learning’s definition and say:
“When two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent.”
There are several main types of Cognitive Dissonance and the one I see play out for both Employee and Employer, in the workplace, is Dissonance Due To Inadequate Justification.
When an employee consistently comes in while they are sick; comes to work early; stays late; pitches in with the entire team to complete a job – that employee is likely doing so because they believe this behavior will curry favor with the employer.

Sometimes it does.
However, if that same employee comes in one day to ask for an opportunity to work remotely one day a week, or asks for a raise, or asks for more responsibility…. and is denied, this conflicts with the reason the employee was doing all that great stuff to begin with.

Now, Dissonance has been created.
On the flip side of this same coin, an employer can often believe that coming in early, staying late, pitching in, etc. are all marks of being a good employee and the salary, benefits, 401k plan are all adequate compensation for said performance.
What can often happen, in the crosssection of these opposing viewpoints is:
The employee will slowly start to perform at a lower level, because (s)he believes her/his excellence has gone un-rewarded.
The employer will likely NOT connect this new dip in performance with the employee feeling un-rewarded and attribute it to simply a dip in performance.
The employee is now plotting to leave the company, convinced that her excellence will be appreciated elsewhere.

When the employee finally resigns, the employer sees this resignation as just another in a long line of people who “job-hop” these days.
This is where I would like to see employers/employees have a conversation that begins with something like: “Do you feel the work you do is recognized and rewarded adequately”?
OR,conversely,
“I’d like to have a conversation about the way my work is rewarded and recognized”.
This simple question/statement would open the lines of communication before either party had an opportunity to make assumptions about the other…giving way to a more open and constructive working relationship.
No matter whether you are an employee or employer, give the other side a chance to explain their point of view before you decide it for them.”