Have we overdosed on the notion of engagement, the elusive workplace elixir that the federal government has been chasing since 2003?

Have we overpromised on the illusion of engagement since the reality of engagement has essentially been non-existent in the public and private sectors since the Great Recession of 2008?

Is engagement really what it is cracked up to be when the engagement winners of the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government are year after year predominately white workplaces?

Did Google a mostly male and white organization, commit the unpardonable sin when they released a study on teams that failed to mention engagement as a requirement for group health? Instead they found that psychological safety, dependability, structure, clarity, meaning and impact are the pillars of a good team.

Are good leaders necessary for engaged employees when disengaging leaders like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos led their organizations in ways that changed the planet?

Where would the music world be without John Lennon who was abusive toward women?

Imagine children’s literature without Dr. Seuss who never liked children.

Lewis Garrad a chartered organizational psychologist at Sirota, a research and industrial/organizational psychology consultancy firm and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a Professor of Business Psychology at University College London claim there are 4 ways that engagement may harm an organization:
 
Embracing the Status Quo
The positivity that results from engagement can get employees too comfortable in their own skin. They get fat and happy and tend to resist new and better ways of doing their work. Real innovation and creativity comes from dissatisfied workers who are uncomfortable with business as usual.
 
Burnout
Engaged employees bring so much discretionary effort to their work that they often become workplace martyrs. As workaholics, they end up ignoring their physical, spiritual and psychological selves which over time diminishes their performance.
 
Personality Bias
Engaged employees tend to see the glass as half full. These more optimistic employees while scoring great on engagement surveys may not be high performers. For example, an engaged customer service staff may produce high levels of customer satisfaction. Yet these same workers when asked to solve challenging problems or be innovative and creative may struggle since they think their current circumstances do not demand change.
 
Ignores Negative Thinking
Criticism can get the organization’s attention by narrowing its focus. Negative people while bothersome are persistent which holds the organization’s feet to the fire. If there were no jerks in the workplace, our organizations would crumble under the weight of volatility, uncertainty, constant change and ambiguity.

While positivity can increase engagement and morale, negative thinking has its benefits as well since pessimistic employees tend to try harder and more inclined to target their objectives.

Let’s search for a more realistic picture of employee engagement. Could it be that we need both engaged and disengaged employees for true engagement?

Maybe then we can finally agree on what engagement looks like which would allow us to finally do something about it.