DIVING AND MARINE OPERATIONS GROUP, INC
Case study of absenteeism, turnover, and burnout
Introduction
*A commercial dive company (Diving and Marine Operations Group, INC.) conducts
underwater construction all over the world. In fact, the company has been considered a major
competitor in the diving industry, especially on the east coast of the U.S.
It’s no secret that commercial divers have a physically and emotionally demanding job. The
divers are subjected to long hours underwater, sometimes with no breaks for hydration or food. It
is not uncommon for a diver to be underwater for 8-10 hours at a time engaging in severe
physical exertion. One of the most demanding and stressful jobs in the industry is pile restoration
on a major pier. This job requires the diver to pressure wash the existing pile, wrap a fiberglass
jacket around the pile (sometimes 30 feet long), and then pump concrete inside to strengthen the
pile. All of this is done alone.
Premise: The company received a contract to conduct pile rehabilitation work in downtown
Baltimore on a major shipping pier. The project consisted of 100 piles to be reinforced with
concrete which needed to be completed in two weeks. According to the original bid, the
company was allotted two crews with four men each. Each crew would have one lead and
primary diver with three support personnel. At the start of the job, one lead diver, Mike, was
beginning to show up late. Although the crew could start on the preparation for the day, the dive
could not start for crew number 1. After the first week, Mike began to have unexcused absences.
This put the project way behind. The dive operations manager had to pull another man from
another job to fill Mike’s slot. Ultimately, the project was a week behind schedule and on the
final week, Mike quit the company unexpectedly. Due to Mike’s behavior, the company became
delinquent on several jobs because of diver swapping between dive projects. However, once the
company had two reliable crews, all of the projects were finished.
Mike’s withdrawal behaviors (a similar pattern to burnout employees)
Tardiness
Absenteeism
Quits
Elements
Absenteeism: An element of withdrawal behavior, absenteeism is when an employee misses
work for any reason, or no reason. Just like being absent from school. The reasoning behind
being absent can have many causes, such as taking care of their children when they're sick,
staying at home because of their own sickness, they have an unavoidable appointment they can't
miss, they're not motivated at work, etc. It's very costly to organizations, such as the Diving and
Marine Operation Group, INC. By having their lead diver of crew #1, Mike, quitting the job
during the last week of construction, means he's missing out on all that work and the company
must find a replacement suitable for the job (which can be difficult, especially in the middle of
an important project). Absenteeism is actually a response to stress. Mike was probably worked
too hard or not given enough breaks to be mentally relaxed, also physically.
Turnover: This is when an employee quits voluntarily or if there are layoffs in the company due
to financial issues. Turnover can also, like absenteeism, have many reasons for the employee to
voluntarily quit. There are advantages and disadvantages to an employee turning over. From a
negative perspective, that employee could leave with company information and how they
conduct business. This can hurt the company due to competitiveness and reputation. From a
positive perspective, hiring new employees can add different ideas to the company. Another
positive reason would be to weed out the bad employees. These employees could be hurting the
company's reputation or could be affecting other employees, spreading negativity. The
employees might have found a better opportunity somewhere else, they might not feel useful to
the company and are seeking somewhere where they're more appreciated, they don't like their
job, etc. With Mike, he could've just been overworked and didn't/couldn't work at Diving and
Marine Operation Group INC; he could've found a better opportunity but didn't tell anyone about
it, etc.
Lateness: Lateness is when an employee is not on time to work and arrives past the time they're
expected to arrive. There are many reasons why an employee can be showing up late, and
sometimes it might not even be their fault. Many employees get stuck in traffic on the way to
work (an environmental reason, everyone leaves at the same time to get to work), which explains
why they could be late. Another reason for being late could be the employee not caring whether
they get there on time or not. If the employee is late on a consistent basis, that employee could
have no motivation to be there or they just don't care. The reason to be late can also deal with
family, such as their kid throwing a tantrum about not going to school and they had to drive their
child to school themselves. There are so many reasons an employee could be late. With Mike, he
could've stopped caring and knew his time there was short so... who cares?
Burnout: When the employee gives so much to the company that they're mentally and/or
physically exhausted. With physical jobs, such as construction workers or movers, this type of
industry could experience a lot of burnout. Some people might have a better physical build for
the job than others and might not experience it as often. With Mike, since his job is physically
and emotionally demanding, he probably is experiencing burnout from the job and probably a
cause for his turnover. Mike is in the water for a long time, under all that pressure and barely/if
even gets a break from the job to fuel back up (eating and drinking water). People who
experience burnout don't usually care about their job anymore, so their performance most likely
will be below what the company expects of them. This can also be a cause for Mike's lateness
and absenteeism as well.
Analysis
Mike's actions had a negative effect on the project that the dive company was attempting to
complete. His lateness not only caused a delay in the daily work of his actual team but its lasting
effect caused a delay on the entire project. When Mike finally quit the dive company lost a
valuable asset. Training an underwater diver is very expensive. There is a limited pull of people
to pick from when hiring so the recruitment process was also very costly and time consuming.
This expense and delay also caused the company to lose out on some future bids. This project
coming in late hurt the reputation of the company and they were one team short so they had to
add additional time to any future bids until the position could be filled.
Mike's actions were most likely due to burnout. Burnout is response to chronic and emotional
and interpersonal stressors on the job (L13, pg9). The dive job is very physically intensive and
untimely lead to Mike giving more than he was capable, this led to physical exhaustion and Mike
began to withdraw from his work. As we see with Mike people who suffer from burnout end up
no longer caring about their job and they begin to withdraw (L13, pg9).
Conclusion
At this point, there are various reasons to why Mike displayed withdraw behaviors during
this diving project. As such, this case study postulates the notions lateness, absenteeism, turnover
and burnout as the general signs of low job satisfaction that Mike might have been experiencing
during this diving project. In spite of that, it is common that withdraw behaviors tend to progress
through various stages before reaching turnover. As was the case of Mike, his withdraw
behaviors progressed from simply showing up to work late (lateness) to being absent
(absenteeism), to ultimately quitting his job (turnover). What is significant from this case study
are the resulting effects that transpired from Mike’s withdraw behaviors. Ultimately, Mike’s
actions (withdraw behaviors) had an effect on both his co-workers and the organization as a
whole. When Mike began showing up late and/or absent from work, this caused major
production and customer service disruptions. Moreover, Mike’s lateness and absenteeism caused
severe stress on other company employees, especially for the managers who have to scramble to
fill the gaps. As a result, losing employees to low job satisfaction will ultimately cause the
organization to recruit and training new employees, which can be very expensive and time
consuming. Therefore, leaders must be fully aware and able to identify which employees are
displaying common withdrawal behaviors (i.e. lateness, absenteeism, turnover and burnout). This
notion is critical to the leaders, followers and the organizations goals, because dissatisfied
employees are generally less committed, less involved and less motivated to perform to
standards.
References:
PSU World Campus. (n.d) Lesson 13: Lateness, absenteeism, turnover and burnout: Am I likely
to miss work? Retrieved on 7/121/2013