What to Do When They Don't Value Your Work

Everyone, within themselves, cultivates the desire to be appreciated and to feel useful, a need also included among the fundamental needs of the human being listed in the note Maslow's Pyramid : the need for appreciation is a concrete need for each individual. Immersed in a professional context, every day we seek favorable results from peers or superiors, to give meaning to our efforts and celebrate successes. Being valued in the work environment is a desire that resides in every person who goes to the office every morning.

Often, however, positive reinforcement never seems to come: the boss, colleagues, the team seem to be unaware of our good performances, making us feel frustrated. Unfortunately, professional dissatisfaction and lack of regard for work also greatly influence love and family relationships and everything related to the personal and private environment. With this article from Psychology we will see together what to do when they do not value your work.

How to know if your boss values you

Knowing the opinion that the boss has of us is very important to increase confidence and self-esteem, to obtain more satisfaction, to better manage the tasks received and to study professional growth strategies with greater attention. Trying to understand whether the boss appreciates our work or not is very important not only for our career and professional life, but also to achieve greater serenity and psychophysical balance. You think they don't take you into account in your work, but how do you know if your boss values you or not? There are some attitudes that can serve as clues to understand it:

• Take your judgment into account. If he asks for your opinion, it is probably because he considers you competent and values you especially.
• He looks you in the eye. If when you speak the boss is not distracted and looks at you, it means that he is attentive to what you say.
• It holds you accountable. If your boss tries to make you autonomous and often puts you in front of new things to do and tasks to face, do not take it as an affront: he trusts you, esteems you and believes that you can grow.
• Chat with you. If your boss gets carried away by confidences or talks to you, it means that he respects and trusts you.
• It confronts you with challenges. If your boss assigns you difficult tasks, he is probably not doing it to burden you but to see how far you can grow and how many skills you have.
• He doesn't compliment you. It's not always a bad sign: if your boss congratulates you in private and not in front of everyone, it's a good sign.
• When he has to talk to you, he does it in person. If your boss has something to tell you and doesn't call you, but lets you go directly to his office, that's a good sign.

How to tell your boss that you don't feel valued

We frequently speak of enlightened and empathetic leaders, but reality does not always meet expectations: the boss or manager often does not pay attention to human emotions, neglecting the need for esteem and appreciation perceived by employees. It's not always a desired attitude - the many compromises and pressures from above that you're under can quickly make you forget about the good work you've done for the company. What to do when your boss ignores you? What to do when your boss doesn't value your work or doesn't trust you?

Refresh the boss's memory: To get your due compliments, remind him of how many great achievements you have made. Set a moment of confrontation and dialogue with him, presenting yourself prepared and organized, perhaps with a list of the latest hits. Define a meeting goal, for example, a review from the last semester where you can review your work and get tips on how to improve.

In the face of recent positive results, the boss will be able to have a clear picture of your talent and become fully aware of the good work you are doing for the company.

What to do when you don't feel valued at work

What can you do when they don't appreciate your work and don't value you? Next, we will see how to act before a boss who does not value you or some colleagues who do not recognize you.

1. Enter the work group while maintaining your personality. Being yourself has a huge advantage, since it avoids wasting energy and memory to make visible something about you that does not belong to you. To be more comfortable with yourself and not pretend, we recommend the following information on how to feel better about yourself.
2. Accept and understand the limits of who works with you. Each person is made in their own way, with different capacities and ways of thinking: trying to understand and accept them, ignoring some misunderstandings, will give the feeling of being a balanced and serene person.
3. Stick to the schedule. The value and respect you give to arrival and departure time is observed by those around you in the workplace.
4. Learn to be productive and less busy. Focus on achieving results, as these are the things that are needed in the workplace and are valued immediately.
5. Share knowledge and contribute your opinion. Updating who works with you on the aspects of your work, your results, the ideas for improvement that you think are useful for everyone, is a way to give importance to who is by your side every day and to discreetly value your role.
6. Learn the personal tastes and priorities of those who work with you. Learning to respect what is important to each of them, observing what gives each person pleasure, helps you better understand who spends a lot of time with you and in turn be valued.
7. Apologize when necessary. There is nothing better than being in front of someone who makes you understand that he has understood what happened and that he sincerely regrets having participated in this event.
8. Bring "little courtesies" to the office. Soften the life of those who work in the company with gestures of attention towards them.
9. Help those who need it. Making a gesture of support towards those who need moral or practical support shows your sensitivity towards altruism, an indispensable gift to be able to belong to a group of people.
10. Specialize in a competition. Build a task in which you excel or specialize in a work process in which you make a difference and in which you can be noticed.
11. Be nice in the office. Bringing good humor or serenity to the places you frequent will make them look for you.
12. Avoid the gossip of others. A person who has a desire to work avoids talking about trivial, inopportune and inappropriate things about co-workers.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.