The enthusiasm is gone. If the reality of your new role led to a swift decline in effort, understand how burnout or a culture mismatch causes post-hire disengagement.

Beyond laziness: Understanding the 15 psychological drivers of post-hire disengagement

The phenomenon is perplexing: a candidate fights tooth and nail to secure a coveted job, only to start acting strangely once they’ve signed the contract. This isn’t just about a change of heart; it is a complex, often unconscious self-sabotaging behaviour where an employee, having successfully “sold themselves”, then shows up late, underperforms, or adopts a resentful attitude.

From a managerial perspective, this behaviour can be misinterpreted as simple laziness or disrespect, but it is far more nuanced. This post-hire disengagement causes significant disruption, drains management time, and can spread cynicism through a team, undermining overall productivity and morale.

The employee themselves is often caught in a painful internal conflict, struggling to reconcile their initial drive with their current inability to perform. This article will look at fifteen psychological drivers for this behaviour and offer coping strategies or solutions to deal with the behaviour.

39102611 1856400401094139 5967589429789851648 n

Online-Therapy.com

Life-changing therapy &
tools for a new you.

Learn more

15 Psychological drivers for the post-hire disengagement behaviour

Fear of success

While seemingly counterintuitive, success can be deeply frightening because it brings higher expectations, greater responsibility, and increased pressure to maintain performance. The individual may subconsciously fear they won’t be able to sustain the required level and would rather fail on their own terms.

This fear drives them to behave in ways that create a predictable, more manageable failure, a self-engineered downfall that offers a sense of control over an otherwise terrifying, high-stakes situation.

Imposter syndrome

This is the persistent, debilitating feeling of being a “fraud” despite clear evidence of competence and achievement. When the person achieves the sought-after role, their fear of being “found out” intensifies dramatically.

Their strange, poor behaviour can be a defensive, unconscious strategy to fail quickly, allowing them to attribute the failure to “I didn’t try” rather than facing the possibility that their maximum effort still wasn’t good enough.

Fear of failure

For some, the sheer anxiety around potentially failing at a new, high-stakes, visible job is so paralysing that they intentionally or subconsciously underperform to mitigate the risk.

Creating a poor track record provides an immediate, external reason for failure (e.g., “I was a bad fit”, or “I had a bad attitude”) and offers a sense of control over an otherwise overwhelming and terrifying situation.

Perfectionism

The intense pressure of a new job, combined with a perfectionist mindset, can lead to crippling paralysis and procrastination. The individual is overwhelmed by the demand to perform flawlessly on every task.

The fear of not being able to produce work perfectly is so great that they avoid or delay tasks entirely, often acting out in frustration or anger rather than delivering work they deem imperfect.

The ‘honeymoon’ phase of burnout

Burnout isn’t always gradual; a rapid descent can occur. The initial enthusiasm of the “honeymoon” phase, high motivation and over-commitment, quickly leads to unreasonable stress and exhaustion.

Once the reality of the workload and the lack of boundaries set in, this excessive effort converts rapidly into cynicism, resentment, and profound disengagement, manifesting as anger and reduced productivity.

Mismatch of values or culture

An employee may have been desperate to secure the job and sold themselves well, only to discover a fundamental discrepancy between their personal ethics or values and the company’s culture or operating style.

Feeling like a moral or cultural outcast leads to deep dissatisfaction. The resulting cynicism and withdrawal manifest as poor work and resentment towards colleagues who seem to conform to the mismatched values.

Toxic work environment

If a new hire quickly encounters an unsupportive, hostile, or poorly managed company culture, their initial motivation can plummet almost instantly.

Experiencing unfair treatment, constant criticism, or a lack of basic professional recognition undermines their willingness to contribute. Their resentment and anger are a direct, though poorly expressed, reaction to the lack of psychological safety.

Undiagnosed mental health issues

Conditions such as anxiety, depression, or ADHD are often masked during interviews but can become impossible to manage under the structured, high-demand environment of a new job.

The strange behaviour, lack of motivation, or persistent absence is often a direct symptom of a deeper psychological or chemical struggle that has been triggered or exacerbated by the new role’s stress.

Low self-esteem

Someone with a core belief of low self-worth may subconsciously not believe they deserve the success they achieved, even if they worked hard to get it.

Their resulting self-sabotaging behaviour acts to subconsciously confirm their negative self-perception, reinforcing the cycle of low self-esteem and providing an internal justification for their failure.

Cognitive dissonance

This involves the discomfort of holding two conflicting beliefs: “I am a capable, high-performing person” and “I am failing at this job.” To resolve this painful conflict, the individual unconsciously chooses failure.

By failing, they provide an external excuse for their negative experience and avoid the more painful internal reconciliation that they might not be who they thought they were, thus protecting their core self-image.

‘Shift Shock’ and job disillusionment

This occurs when the reality of the job differs significantly from the candidate’s expectations. The company presented an idealised version of the role during the interview process.

The employee may find the work is more menial, the promised growth opportunities are non-existent, or the manager is autocratic. This disillusionment destroys motivation and breeds resentment.

The need for control (procrastination as power)

In a new environment where the person feels overwhelmed or out of control, procrastination and rebellion become unconscious tools to reassert power.

The act of delaying work, not showing up, or delivering sub-par performance is a way of rejecting the demands of the organisation and establishing autonomy in a situation where they feel powerless.

A lack of intrinsic motivation

The individual may have been driven solely by the extrinsic motivation of securing a title, salary, or status (the interview phase) but lacks the intrinsic passion for the actual day-to-day work.

Once the extrinsic goal is met, the daily tasks feel boring, pointless, and taxing. The resulting behaviour reflects this emptiness—a lack of internal drive necessary to sustain performance.

Past traumatic work experience

A new job can trigger unresolved trauma from a previous toxic workplace or a deeply negative management relationship. The individual enters the new role with hypervigilance and distrust.

A minor critical comment or perceived slight can trigger a disproportionate, defensive reaction, such as anger or withdrawal, as they subconsciously anticipate a repeat of their past negative experiences.

Anxiety about visibility and scrutiny

Success means increased visibility and constant scrutiny from senior management, peers, and clients. For some, this exposure is a terrifying threat rather than an opportunity.

They may subconsciously retreat from the spotlight by underperforming. By becoming a low-profile problem, they escape the pressure and constant monitoring that high performance would demand.

The complexity of these drivers demonstrates that addressing post-hire self-sabotage requires a deep understanding and compassionate, systematic response, moving beyond simplistic disciplinary action. The key coping strategy for the individual is metacognition: developing the awareness to recognise that their current behaviour is driven by an underlying fear or conflict, not a simple lack of desire. They must learn to externalise their fears, writing them down to separate the emotion from the facts of the job, and seek professional guidance to dismantle the protective mechanisms that are no longer serving them.

Online therapy and virtual counseling available now

Improve your mental well-being with online therapy. Get access to our therapy program online from your smartphone or computer. Book a therapy appointment online today.

Solutions for the individual and the workplace

Implement realistic goal-setting to combat fear

Individuals must learn to break down overwhelming responsibilities into tiny, manageable micro-goals to combat fears like perfectionism, failure, or success. Instead of focusing on the “perfect report”, the goal becomes “write the introduction today”.

This strategy reduces the perceived stakes, allowing the individual to accumulate small, undeniable successes. Each completed micro-goal provides concrete evidence of competence, directly challenging the cognitive distortions of imposter syndrome and the fear of failure.

Seek professional coaching or therapy

Since many of these drivers are deeply rooted psychological defence mechanisms (e.g., imposter syndrome, low self-esteem), external professional support is often necessary for long-term change.

A coach or therapist can provide a safe space to explore and dismantle the fear-based narratives driving the self-sabotage. Techniques like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can help restructure the negative thought patterns that lead to withdrawal and resentment.

Practise radical transparency with expectations

If the issue stems from a values mismatch or “shift shock”, the individual needs to practise radical honesty with themselves and, where appropriate, with their manager. This involves articulating what they thought the job was and what it turned out to be.

If the gap is too large, the company’s culture is truly toxic or the values misalign fundamentally, the solution may be an ethical and strategic exit. If the gap is small, clear communication can allow managers to make minor adjustments to tasks or roles.

Focus on intrinsic value and meaning

To counter the collapse of extrinsic motivation, the individual must reconnect with the intrinsic meaning of their work. This involves finding the connection between their tasks and a larger personal or social purpose.

By asking “Who does this work help?” or “What skill am I truly developing?” they shift their focus from the external reward (the salary or title) to the internal satisfaction of competence and contribution, sustaining their drive long after the initial excitement wears off.

Online Counseling: Try Talk Therapy from Home | hims

Conclusion

Post-hire self-sabotage is not a moral failing but a symptom of deep, often unconscious psychological conflict. For the individual, the solution lies in cultivating self-awareness, seeking external support, and strategically managing the anxieties that success and high expectations provoke. For the organisation, the lesson is clear: robust recruitment must be followed by empathetic, psychologically informed management. By recognising that strange behaviour is often a distress signal rooted in fear, not laziness, employers can move from punitive measures to supportive interventions, ultimately fostering a healthier, more productive, and more resilient workforce.

____________________