What Is a Disgruntled Employee? Signs, Causes, and What to Do

Early in my career, I watched a colleague become a disgruntled employee. I didn't understand what I was seeing until much later. Our team was rolling out a company-wide system. He'd been through a similar project before that failed, and he was convinced we were heading for the same outcome. His concern wasn't irrational. But the rest of the team had accepted the direction, and he couldn't let go. Meetings turned toxic. He was eventually removed from the project.

What stays with me, over twenty years later, is how exhausting it was for everyone. The real issue was never about the software. It was a legitimate grievance that hardened into something nobody knew how to address.

If you're managing someone whose frustration has crossed that line (the sarcasm, the complaints to peers, the slow withdrawal), this post will help you understand what's driving it and what to do next.

What Is a Disgruntled Employee?

A disgruntled employee is someone whose dissatisfaction has moved past a specific complaint and become a persistent pattern of negative behavior. They're not just having a bad week. Their frustration has settled into how they communicate, how they engage with the team, and how they show up every day.

What separates disgruntlement from ordinary frustration is that it sticks. An unhappy employee might grumble about a scheduling change and move on. A disgruntled employee brings that energy to the next meeting, and the one after that. Complaints shift from specific ("I don't like this new process") to general ("Nothing ever works around here"). They stop raising concerns directly and start venting to peers instead. If you're noticing early warning signs, pay attention. Disgruntlement that goes unaddressed rarely stays contained, and it eventually becomes a broader management problem.

What Causes Employee Disgruntlement?

Most disgruntlement starts with something real: a decision that felt unfair, a role change that wasn't discussed, or a promotion that went to someone else. The root cause is rarely laziness or attitude. It's a response to a workplace situation the employee feels powerless to change through normal channels.

Step-by-Step Approach

Confirm you're looking at a pattern, not a bad week

Before you act, make sure what you're seeing is sustained. One sarcastic comment after a stressful shift is venting. Three weeks of sarcastic comments, increased absences, and complaints to peers is a pattern. The distinction matters because your response to each is completely different. A bad week calls for patience. A pattern calls for a conversation.

Look at what's changed and when it started. Did the behavior shift after a specific event (a new policy, a schedule change, a promotion)? Can you point to at least two or three concrete examples? If you can connect the timing and describe specific behaviors, you're dealing with disgruntlement, not a mood.

Identify the root cause beneath the surface complaint

The thing the employee is complaining about is often not the thing that's actually wrong. Someone pushing back on a process change might really be struggling with a shift in authority. Someone griping about the schedule might be upset they weren't consulted. This is the part most first-time managers miss: addressing the stated complaint feels productive but changes nothing if the real issue is something deeper.

The three root causes that come up most often for new managers are feeling overlooked or passed over, unclear expectations that make the person feel set up to fail, and organizational changes that weren't adequately explained. Research on workplace behavior consistently shows that people can accept outcomes they don't like when the process felt fair and the reasoning was respectful. When both of those break down, behavior follows.

Recognize which kind of communication is missing

When new managers sense tension, their instinct is to communicate more about their decisions. More detail, more context, more documentation. That instinct is sound, and it solves a real category of problems. But disgruntlement usually isn't an information problem. It's a relationship problem.

The difference matters because each requires a completely different response. One is about making sure people understand what you decided and why. The other is about acknowledging what changed between you and the other person. Most new managers are doing the first one well and haven't realized the second one exists. Until you figure out which kind of communication is actually missing, more of the same won't help.

Act before the pattern sets

The longer you wait, the harder this gets. Every week you don't address the behavior, it becomes a little more normal on your team. The other employees are watching. They're forming opinions about whether you're going to manage this or avoid it. And the disgruntled employee is getting more permission to keep going, because nothing has happened to suggest they should stop.

You don't need a perfect plan. You need a conversation, and you need it soon. If you're looking for a structured approach to that conversation, including how to diagnose the root cause and what to say in different scenarios, the step-by-step guide to dealing with a disgruntled employee walks through the full process.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The most common mistake is waiting it out. New managers tell themselves "maybe it'll resolve on its own" or "maybe I'm reading too much into this." It almost never resolves on its own. Delay is the most expensive option because the behavior gets reinforced, the team gets more uncertain, and the eventual conversation gets harder.

The second mistake is taking it personally. When someone on your team is openly negative or complaining about your decisions, it's hard not to feel attacked. But disgruntlement is almost never about you as a person. It's about the situation, the change, or the loss the employee is processing. If you internalize it, you'll either avoid the conversation entirely or go into it defensive. Neither helps.

The third is labeling instead of describing. Telling someone they have a "bad attitude" or they're being "difficult" guarantees defensiveness. Describing specific behaviors you've observed ("I've noticed you've been raising concerns with other team members instead of bringing them to me directly") gives them something concrete to respond to.

See It in Action

Here's how Advizo's Employee Behavior Advisor helped a newly promoted nurse manager figure out what was really going on with a long-tenured team member who'd started acting differently after the promotion.

Once you've identified the pattern and understand what's driving it, the next step is deciding how to address it directly.