By Lisa Matomola
There’s a conversation I have with employers quite often. It comes up in recruitment meetings, in performance reviews, and sometimes over a casual cup of coffee.
The employer says, “Lisa, this employee was incredible when they were on a temporary contract. They arrived early, volunteered for extra work, asked questions and went the extra mile. Then we made them permanent… and everything changed.”
Have you ever wondered why that happens?
This doesn’t happen to everyone. Many employees become even more committed after securing a permanent position, the security frees them to think longer-term, invest in relationships, and take ownership in ways a short contract never allowed. But the pattern shows up often enough, in organisations of every size and sector, that it deserves an honest conversation.
So, what changes?
The first reason is what I call the arrival mentality. Some people treat the permanent contract as the destination instead of the beginning. During a temporary contract, every day feels like an interview. There’s a scoreboard, and the employee knows it. The moment the contract is signed, that scoreboard disappears and with it, for some, the urgency. They feel they’ve already won, so the game is over.
The second reason is comfort. Job security matters, it’s one of the most basic things people want from work, and there’s nothing wrong with valuing it. However, comfort has a way of quietly turning into complacency. The employee who once looked for ways to add value now does only what is required. Nothing they do is wrong, it’s just that nothing they do is more than the minimum.
Another reason is disappointment. Some employees expect life to change immediately after confirmation, a promotion, a bigger salary, exciting new opportunities. When those expectations aren’t met, motivation starts to slip. Often the expectations were never realistic to begin with, but nobody managed them. Nobody sat the employee down and explained what confirmation does and doesn’t mean, or what the actual path to growth looks like. The employee filled that silence with their own assumptions, and the assumptions were wrong.
Sometimes we confirm employees and then forget about them. During probation, they had regular check-ins, feedback, and attention. After confirmation, all of that stops. We stop coaching them and we stop giving feedback. We stop creating opportunities for growth. Then, a year later, we’re surprised that the spark is gone. If people aren’t challenged, they disengage and disengagement is rarely loud. It looks like an employee who still shows up, still delivers, but has quietly stopped caring whether the work is excellent or merely acceptable.
This is why confirmation should never be the end of development. It should be the beginning.
A permanent employee still needs goals. They still need coaching. They still need recognition. They still need opportunities to learn. The probation period should not be the most attention an employee ever receives from their manager, yet in many organisations, that’s exactly what happens.
If you’re a manager reading this, ask yourself when was the last time you had a genuine development conversation with an employee you confirmed two or three years ago? Not a performance review. A real conversation about where they’re going and what they need to get there. If you can’t remember, you may be part of the pattern you’re complaining about.
To employees, here is my advice, as a coach as much as a consultant, never lose the habits that got you the job. Keep arriving prepared, continue asking questions and looking for ways to improve. Keep treating every day as another opportunity to prove your value, not because you’re afraid of losing your job, but because that’s who you were when you were at your best. The version of you that earned the permanent contract was curious, energetic and hungry to contribute. That person didn’t stop being valuable the day the contract was signed.
Employers don’t only remember how you performed during your interview or your probation. They remember how you performed after they trusted you with a permanent opportunity. When the next promotion is discussed, when a new project needs a leader, when opportunities arise, the question in the room is never “who impressed us three years ago?” It’s “who is impressing us now?”
So today, I want to leave you with one simple question.
If your manager compared the employee you are today with the employee they hired on your first day, would they say you’ve grown, or would they say you’ve become comfortable?
