Setting timers instead of alarms, preferring Pepsi over Coke, and being afraid of astronauts. These are examples of “beige flags,” a TikTok trend where people share their partner’s odd quirks. They’re not considered assets, but they aren’t dealbreakers, either. They just make you pause.
Max Wessel, chief learning officer at the enterprise application software provider SAP, says employees can display beige flags, too, and they often indicate that they’ve become disengaged.
“The relationship between an employee and an employer is like any relationship is that is managed on a spectrum and evolves over time,” he says. “There is a point in time in a relationship where somebody begins to disengage. The signs are not outright negative, but they’re things you have to pay pretty close attention to understand the beginning of the end.”
To identify the employees who might eventually leave, managers should look for these three signs:
1. They do the minimum
Job descriptions usually include the basic expectations an employer has of an employee. However, an employee who is engaged in their job often goes above and beyond those line items. When someone who was always a go-getter starts to pull back, it could be a beige flag, says Wessel, who suggests considering an employee’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, which can be revealing.
“Extrinsic motivators are the things that get you past a minimum threshold of satisfaction,” he says. “You’re employed, paid enough, and have the right title. It’s what makes you satisfied enough to do the job. When people start to do the bare minimum, it’s very clear that they’re just passing those extrinsic motivators.”
On the other hand, intrinsic motivators get you fired up in the morning. “People who are at the highest potential have the most visible intrinsic motivators,” says Wessel. “Where we lose focus is the 80% of people in the middle who could be intrinsically motivated but are frustrated with either a lack of development or recognition. It is very easy to be demotivated if you think you’ve been passed off or if you think you’re not being recognized for the work that you do.”
2. They withdraw from others
Another beige flag is when an employee disengages on a community level. “When work moved to remote settings, it became transactional,” says Wessel. “During the pandemic, it became very common to work for a period of time, turn off your camera, and engage somewhere else.”
Susan Kuczmarski, author of Lifting People Up: The Power of Recognition, calls this “egg shelling.” “Employees manifest egg shelling in a variety of ways,” she says. “They may increase sick days, come in late or leave early for in-person non-remote days, turn coworkers down for lunch or a drink after work, or keep quiet in meetings.”
Sometimes, the actions are subtle, says Randall Peterson, a professor of organizational behavior at the London Business School.
“They start getting extraordinarily busy, so busy that they regularly miss meetings, cancel at the last minute as something has come up, or they often already have plans,” he says. “[They are] always pleasant, but never have the time to chat to colleagues, with the old ‘smile and wave’ as a typical interaction.”
3. They seem different
A third beige flag is a personality change. “For example, an assertive or energetic coworker becoming more reserved and quiet,” says Amy Casciotti, vice president of HR for TechSmith, a provider of screen capture software and productivity solutions. “This is usually in conjunction with a lack of interest in career advancement opportunities with your company.”
When someone’s personality changes, it’s important to look deeper, as it may be due to something other than work. Diane Rosen, a principal at Compass Consultants, employee performance, engagement, and productivity consultants, suggests that managers ask themselves a few questions.
“When did it start?” she asks. “Was there any incident that may have triggered the behavior like feedback on a project, being assigned to a new team, or a conflict with a colleague? Is there anything going on with this person inside or outside of work of which I am aware?”
If you need more clarification, Rosen suggests making discreet inquiries with another manager or team members to get a fuller picture of what may be impacting the changes.
What to do when you spot a beige flag
Red flags, such as a sudden increase in paid time off, are usually obvious and often too late. These beige flags—things that make a leader pause—are essential to catch.
“The hard thing is how to train people to have the conversation around something quite ambiguous, such as doing the bare minimum,” says Wessel. “The employee might say, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong. Why am I having a conversation about this?’”
Instead, Wessel says it’s key for managers to hold routine check-ins. “If it comes out of the blue—if after nine months something is put on the agenda—then the employee knows something is wrong,” says Wessel. “You stigmatize it. When it’s an ongoing conversation, it’s that much easier.”
It’s important to avoid a display of negative emotions, like getting angry or upset, says Peterson. “If people sense they have been found out by the boss they go into defensive mode, making it worse rather than better,” he says. “Be careful to not alienate further. To address it you need to have a genuine desire to help the person feel more like they belong there. Ask questions of them about their work and goals.”
Focusing on the positive rather than the negative is more likely to get the employee talking, adds Rosen. “If the employee is not responsive, then at some point you have to ask them about their intentions as to this job,” she says. “Do they see a future with the organization? Do they have any performance goals? Where do they want to be in ‘X’ years?”
The goal is to let the employee know how much you appreciate them and their contributions. “Ensure you are focused on employee engagement and obtaining staff feedback as part of your culture and not as a reactive one-and-done element of retaining employees,” says Casciotti. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Intervening with an employee you recognize as becoming disengaged is a huge first step towards re-engagement.”
