Something that is off in workplace culture sometimes comes from ignorance. The same thing as accepting ghost salaries. They grow quietly, tolerated once, ignored twice, and eventually underperforming is now normalized.
What is ghost salaries?
According to Liputan6, ghost salaries is when a person who receives a salary but does not do some or all of the work. Means, an employee who is intentionally underperforming or should we say low on performance and being “understood”.
And why is that?
There are common reasons for it, an employee who is underperforming might be experiencing personal reasons, or too many workload, and other employees who are aware of it might actually avoiding conflict.
According to CNBC Indonesia survey, based on Google survey, of the 100% of civil servants (PNS/ASN) working from home during the pandemic, 30% felt their workload was heavier, and 40% felt their workload was the same as working from the office (Work From Office/WFO). The remaining 30% did not answer any questions.
This shows even public servant are receiving ghost salaries.
What is tolerated once, will be tested again.
After all the tolerance, avoidance came from the company/organizations. No feedback being provided, Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is not enforced, and the evaluations from the company are merely a formality.
Underperformance becomes “normal” and it’s slowly effecting workplace culture. Workplace culture is built on what leaders choose to address. So if the company/organizations is ignoring their underperformance employee which leads to them accepting ghost salaries, then they aren’t capable of creating workplace culture at all.
What something’s off that being normalized in your workplace?



