Is your 'whole heart' in your job?

5 August 2009

2 minute read

No, well maybe you should think of doing something else instead. Dan Sontag, he who has worked at Merrill Lynch for 31 years, latterly as head of the bank's thundering herd of brokers, is - he's leaving.

The Wall Street Journal says Sontag puts his departure down to no longer having his "whole heart" in the job (although it may also have something to do with the arrival of Sallie Crawcheck as his superior).

If Sontag is feeling genuinely disengaged, he may not be the only one.

The

Independent hearkens back to a distant press conference involving Bob Diamond in which he stated, "I wake up every day with a smile on my face. My job is about helping people." Bob displayed far less of that joie-de-vivre this week, the paper notes.

According to a survey published in the Harvard Business Review, nearly 49% of US financial services workers are disengaged or under-engaged from their jobs (although this is an improvement on May 2008, when 23% were totally disengaged).

Engagement in the US

Source: Modern Survey.

It's not clear whether Sontag now intends to rediscover his passion while teaching literacy to underprivileged children. If he does, he may find engagement welling up from within.

Todd Harrison, a former Morgan Stanley banker who has devoted his life to convincing the youth that materialism isn't everything, says, "I don't make the type of money I did on Wall Street, but the psychic income has never been higher."

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

Ad
Adorable
6 August 2009
People are disengaged at work due to several reasons which HR and the leadership of organisations continue to work on and deal with. It's usually down to poor leadership and lack of effective management of people and within these two areas, there are a gamut of factors such as (lack of vision and clear direction from leadership who need to be role models in living and breathing company values daily, the way work is organised/changes made to work and involving staff, fair treatment and with respect by managers, lack of consistency in the application of rules and procedures, not managing the psychological contract properly, managing relationships, culture issues, lack of motivation, reward & recognition, not effectively dealing with and managing relationships/conflicts, structures not properly aligned to business needs and outcomes, lack of new challenges and limited opportunity to grow further & develop at each stage in one's career) etc.
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dd
dd
5 August 2009
people are less disengaged now than last year?
possibly lots of the REALLY disengaged ones... disengaged.
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Un
Unbelieving
5 August 2009
Todd Harrison 'devoting his life that materialism isn't everything'! Come on, who are you trying to convince with this stuff?
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