Stuck employees, also known as reluctant stayers, are people who want to leave their current employers but cannot. This can occur due to a lack of employment alternatives or other obstacles. The Gallup 2024 “State of the Global Workplace” report shows that more than one-half of the workforce across the world fall into this subgroup of employees, representing a considerable number of workers across the globe.

Stuck employees maintain a unique relationship with their employers, which makes traditional motivational drivers like job satisfaction, embeddedness, and intention to leave less effective in predicting their turnover intentions compared to “enthusiastic” stayers and leavers.

Work-related outcomes seem to be different for stuck employees. They are likely to behave in suboptimal ways at work and sometimes may even engage in retaliatory behaviors toward their employers. These behaviors can involve trying to look busy at work, wasting time while in the office, intentionally defying their managers’ guidance and communicating negative views about their employers to people inside or outside their organizations.

The Case for Stuck Employees in the Workplace

Stuck employees behave in these ways because they want to react against what they perceive as injustices in the workplace. New research from The Pennsylvania State University (USA) and the Centre for Responsible Business at the University of Birmingham (U.K.) shows that if an employer is perceived to break their employees’ trust, supportive work policies cannot counteract stuck employees’ intentions to retaliate.

Published in The Journal of Business Psychology, this new research with 327 working adults in the United States demonstrates that after an employer makes a business decision that can negatively affect employee safety, organizational support perceptions can reduce or buffer retaliation intentions in the workplace. But this only occurs among employees who do not want to leave or who are able to leave their jobs easily.

Positive organizational support and perceptions cannot reduce or buffer retaliation intentions among this subgroup of stuck employees. This is because stuck employees have stronger retaliatory intentions compared to other types of employees, as they feel that their social exchange contract with their employer has been strongly violated. These feelings then motivate negative reciprocity and attempts to restore balance in their employment relationships. Retaliation intentions occur even if stuck employees perceive high levels of general organizational support.

How to Prevent Retaliatory Behavior Among Stuck Employees

So, what can employers do to try to prevent or mitigate retaliatory behaviors among this specific group of employees?

As this new research suggests, employers must still strive to be supportive of their employees. But in the case of stuck employees, what is really important is the coupling of organizational support with clear and honest communications about why difficult business decisions are being made. This is especially valuable if these tough decisions can be perceived to go against employee safety in the workplace.

It is also important for employers to invest in ongoing development rather than transactional work relationships with employees. Doing so can buffer the negative effects of future organizational decisions by building trust and emotional attachment between employees and their employers. One way that employers can do this is by enabling self-development and career-development opportunities within their organizations.

Employers can also provide ways for employees to raise workplace concerns that are subsequently heard and addressed accordingly. Further, employers can also try to fulfil as many transactional psychological requirements as possible, as doing this can also help to reduce the negative effects of sometimes having to unintentionally violate employees’ organizational support expectations.

In fact, it can be important for managers to understand and regularly monitor their employees’ organizational support, perceptions and expectations in relation to workplace safety and well-being. This can help organizations to ensure that their employment policies and practices align with employment promises, both perceived and actual. Monitoring can be an important organizational strategy for preventing and reducing negative employee attitudes, intentions and behaviors in the workplace.

Employee engagement surveys can be helpful tools for monitoring and assessing employment attitudes and any important emerging issues including the sources of employee dissatisfaction, morale and turnover.

Clear monitoring and penalties for engaging in retaliatory behaviors at work might also be successful preventative measures. However, these actions must be handled carefully to avoid creating an atmosphere of fear or mistrust. Overly punitive measures can alienate employees further, leading to increased dissatisfaction and even more retaliatory actions. A balanced approach, combining accountability with open communication and support, is essential for fostering a positive and productive work environment.