Is appreciation what's missing from your working life?

By Aoibhinn Mc Bride

You're well paid, enjoy your job and your company has a decent amount of PTO enshrined in your contract but something feels… off.

If you've been feeling professionally unfulfilled lately or like something is missing from your day-to-day working life, under-appreciation could be to blame.

While salary and employee benefits are some of the most tangible ways to quantify employer appreciation, gratitude also ranks high on the list.

In fact, it could be the difference between an engaged workforce and disheartened staff that have one foot out the door—research conducted by OGO, an organization created by leadership expert David Novak, found that 70% of people wish they received more recognition.

The survey also uncovered that 82% of American employees don't feel recognised by their managers and the average amount of time between acts of recognition is 50 days—around once per quarter.

Turning the thank you dial
While desperately seeking out compliments is never a good look—in or out of the workplace—there are a couple of ways you can approach the topic of feeling undervalued with your manager.

For starters, it's a good idea to evaluate your expectations. It might not be feasible or realistic for your manager to thank you for absolutely everything you do (that's why they're paying you) but a good way to get a baseline of what is acceptable is by asking your colleagues for their opinion. This will allow you to benchmark your expectations against theirs.

Once you've gleaned the general consensus about your manager's leadership style and you've confirmed you're not imagining things, ask for a one-to-one meeting or informal review so you can voice your concerns. Take ownership of the contributions you've made to the team and ask for feedback on these.

Similarly, use this one-to-one as a chance to set professional goals you hope to achieve in the near future and ask your manager for feedback on how best you can go about this or if they can mentor you throughout the process.

Or you could always try some dual-promotion for size. While shameless self-promotion should always be avoided, by sharing the love and boosting the achievements and accomplishments of your team as a cohesive unit, you'll be able to toot your own professional horn.

If all else fails, a new job where your efforts are recognised and celebrated could be the answer. And if a job hunt is on the cards, focus your search on the Financial Planning Job Board where you can find thousands of openings in companies actively hiring, such as the three below.

Senior Financial Analyst, ACS Finance, Autodesk, Portland
Autodesk is seeking a highly motivated Senior Financial Analyst to join the Autodesk Construction Solutions (ACS) sales finance team to own the sales forecasting process, and provide strategic analysis across the business. You will play a critical role in preparing financial analyses needed to support ACS sales and finance teams, and will collaborate with HQ planning, sales and data engineering teams as needed. You will also provide strategic insights to help sales and finance leaders interpret the business and understand the "why" behind the data. Interested? Apply here.

Finance Specialist, International Rescue Committee, Wichita
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. It is looking for a Finance Specialist to assist the finance team in accurately controlling and managing the implementation of accounting systems with a primary focus on supporting the IRC in Denver, Colorado. The Finance Specialist provides internal and external partners with timely, accurate and understandable financial information and reports. Find out more information here.

Senior Financial Analyst, Open Source Sales Finance, Oracle, Austin
As a member of the Global Business Finance team, the Financial Analyst will provide finance support to the open source sales org. This includes business partnering, management reporting and analysis to enable decision-making and meet business goals. As such you will be the finance liaison supporting go-to-market planning and the quota setting process, offer analytical insights to the process to drive margin growth, and drive transformation initiatives with a focus on automation to continuously improve processes. See the full job description here.
 
Looking for a job in a company that recognises your efforts? Head to the Financial Planning Job Board today to find your next role