Employee Misfit

This book is about employee misfit. Misfit is the feeling of being alienated from other people, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or being out of step with your employer, colleagues, supervisor, or job, or the sense that you do not fit in with other people. These misalignments, disaffections, and estrangements are thought to be deleterious to individuals, associated to stress and depressive states, and people are known to make strenuous efforts to alleviate themselves of it.

This book collects the latest knowledge and thinking about misfit. The authors come from universities across the globe, and their insights inform our understanding of what misfit is, how misfit changes with age and over careers, how misfit relates to neurodiversity, and how misfit should be measured. Although definitions have been elusive in the misfit literature, this book brings much needed clarity to the field and sets agendas for many lines of future research into the construct. This book will be a vital resource for misfit researchers who want to get the latest thinking about misfit and also those researching person-environment fit. It will also be invaluable to practitioners who want to prevent misfit occurring in their workplaces and combat it when it emerges.

The chapters in this book focus on four key themes: employee misfit, person-job misfit, misfit and neurodiversity, and the measurement of misfit. Through the chapters we get a clear sense that misfit is a complex tapestry of perceptions, experiences, people, and situations, which may be viewed through different philosophical and research lenses. By looking at the different facets and strands of the tapestry in each of the chapters, we come to understand that having a broad understanding of the richness of misfit is perhaps the most valuable lesson for both researchers and practitioners.