Overqualified Employees Can Sometimes Equal Unproductive Workers

According to a recent University of Houston study, too much experience can be a bad thing for some employees as they tend to be unproductive workers.

Christiane Spitzmueller, UH assistant professor of psychology, notes that a survey of 215 pairs of employees and supervisors in a number of industries discovered that overqualified professionals often engage in counterproductive work behaviors. Spitzmueller said such discoveries could ultimately benefit human resources professionals and recruiters.

Employees responded to questions regarding how their previous work experiences and educational backgrounds complemented their day-to-day tasks. Supervisors provided details on counterproductive work behaviors observed in the workplace.

“They (overqualified employees) might be absent frequently or not focused on their work,” commented Spitzmueller, who conducted the study with UH graduate student Alexandra Luksyte. “They also might take things from the office that they’re not supposed to, play video games at their desks and generally, do things other than their assigned tasks,” she added.

Burnout is one of the top reasons overqualified employees tend to focus more on counterproductive behaviors rather than their work assignments, according to Spitzmueller.

Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers’ Compensation costs, including airlines, health care, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. He can be contacted at: [email protected].