Why would you turn to work looking for appreciation? It ain’t there.

Let me hit you with two statistics right out of the gate here:

A 10-year study of more than 200,000 employees shows that 79% of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason, and according to Gallup’s 2017 “State of the American Workplace” report, only 21% agree their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.

Neither of these should be surprising to anyone who has worked in a conventional white-collar office. Any attempts at employee recognition are usually pretty hollow, and the incentive structure of so-called “recognition programs” is usually also somewhat flawed.

I think we could all identify the big culprits of why appreciation from managers is so low:

• They don’t feel they have the time.
• It’s not part of their own bonus/incentive structure.
• They view work in one way and that doesn’t involve recognition.
• They’ve convinced themselves that they rose up on “hard work” or “work ethic” and got some “tough love” along the way, so they’re not quick to praise either.
• They are a man who cannot connect emotionally.
• It’s more natural for a lot of people to yell (i.e…