Zombies have enjoyed a steady presence in media over the last decade. It\u2019s not hard to understand why. Their presence almost always cues a grand narrative of grit and guts, with the gloss of supernatural romanticism and super-cool CG. And so we go through great lengths to read books, watch movies, and play video games to interact with the undead. But if we took a step back, we should realize we don\u2019t have to exercise our imagination so much. We interact with zombies more often than we think. In fact, you\u2019ve probably worked with one recently.
\nThey come to work dragging their feet and type away at their computers with a dead look in their eyes. The only time they become animated is during lunch or water cooler gossip breaks. Most of them don\u2019t even bother actively hating their job anymore and accept the boredom, the drag with a numb, mute acceptance. A few of them actively cannibalize their coworker\u2019s hopes and positivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to work that hard.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re too try-hard.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019ll never work.\u201d \u201cPlease be more practical.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tempting to blame it on the individual (zombie?). It\u2019s his fault he isn\u2019t passionate about his work. It\u2019s his fault he\u2019s locked himself into a dead-end job. But if you take a look at the statistics, you\u2019ll realize being an office zombie is the norm rather than the exception.<\/p>\n
According to Gallup\u2019s annual survey, only 31.5% of American employees reported being actively engaged in their job. If you expand it beyond America, only 13% of the world\u2019s workforce report being are engaged employees.<\/p>\n
The data heavily suggests that the problem is systemic. We need to acknowledge that employees are not robots, who will consistently do \u201cx\u201d with input \u201cy\u201d. And even robots need regular maintenance; your employees need regular attention and strategy just as much as any other corporate problem.<\/p>\n
Do you have an employee engagement strategy in place? Or are you suffering from a zombie plague?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zombies have enjoyed a steady presence in media over the last decade. It\u2019s not hard to understand why. Their presence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":772624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[257,279],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n