If you've stopped counting the money in your growing mutual funds and stock portfolio long enough in the last couple of weeks to notice, one thing will have become strikingly obvious: while some businesses in America and elsewhere are enjoying prosperity not savored since the middle of the last decade, there is far less exuberance, irrational or otherwise, for the employment picture.

Sure, employment is getting better. Just not better enough, fast enough, to suit many. And while the current US unemployment rate of 7.7% is the lowest since 2008, few believe it represents a true measure of the jobs picture, given the large number of underemployed, and the chronic jobless, who have simply given up the hunt. One clear fact is pretty much undisputed: progress in the financial market hasn't been matched by a commensurate level of progress in the job market.

Jim Cramer, CNBC's ranter and raver of all things market-related, suggested on NBC's Today show last week that companies have simply learned, through the recession years, to squeeze more productivity out of fewer workers, fattening their bottom lines in the process.

And which shareholders among us can blame them?

It's great when a growing company hires more people, but there's no inherent social or moral obligation on the part of any organization to provide employment opportunity. (It's different for employers taking publicly funded inducements to create jobs, but, as they say, that's a whole 'nother story.)

It is, however, fundamentally brainless, for the leaders of a company to sabotage its chances for recovery by deliberately wearing out the one factor of production with the greatest potential to fuel the growth it craves - the hearts, minds, and bodies of its people.

Yet, by some accounts, that's precisely what many organizations are doing. In a recent study conducted by the member-based business advisory firm, CEB, 55% of workers surveyed stated that they can't handle the stress of their jobs for much longer. (From the customer service I've received in lots of places lately, I'd say some have already ceased to handle the stress.) In other words, many workers have reached - and exceeded - the breaking point.

A joint study by the Human Capital Institute, with whom it's been our honor to have partnered on a few occasions recently (http://www.hci.org/blog/developing-leaders-cheap), and monster.com, showed that 57% of the workers they surveyed believed that employers were "exploiting the recession" to drive longer hours and lower pay. Say it ain't so!

The same CEB study found that executives want 20% more productivity without increasing the size of the workforce, and believe that only about 34% of workers are operating at peak productivity. Not surprisingly, the latest Employee Engagement Research Report by BlessingWhite finds that only 40% of the North American workforce is fully engaged at work. And the numbers for most other nations are even lower.

Now, we ask - What business can operate at optimum levels with 60% of the workforce giving less than its very best every day? Ours can't, and we suspect yours can't either.

There is another way to coax that greater productivity out of your workforce. Rather than pushing, squeezing, and grinding it out of them (which will render a similar result as pushing, squeezing, and grinding an inflated balloon), you could always try leading it out of them, by persuading them to give up a little more of the Discretionary Effort at their disposal, which is the point of pretty much everything we write and speak about.

People understand the challenges of a shaky economy, and most will work 50 and 60+ hour weeks, or swallow flat or reduced compensation for a season or two, provided they see some light at the end of the tunnel, and feel that the pain is well shared. But as we quoted Charles Hampden-Turner of the London Business School, in our newest book Contented Cows STILL Give Better Milk, "It's not just wrong to exploit workers, it's stupid...The trouble with crushing workers is that then you have to try to make high quality products with crushed people."  

When we begin to get the feeling that we're being taken advantage of, taken for granted, exploited, we naturally start to explore other options. Especially as those options begin to increase in number. Which is exactly what's happening now.

As surely as winter is turning to spring in this hemisphere, things are moving, albeit slowly, in a better direction. We're already seeing (and we bet you are, too) that the best and brightest are starting to make their move. And why wouldn't they? As new opportunities emerge, those with the most to offer, and therefore lots of options, will start exploring those alternatives. A more manageable workweek, a little more time with family, a boss who appreciates your work, opportunities to receive the latest training. These hold a lot more appeal than breaking your neck just to keep your head above water.  

The day is coming when the most qualified will have found new places to learn, grow, and develop, and employers who haven't figured out Discretionary Effort will be left with those who feel they "have fewer options". Which is a gentle way of saying they're each others' last resorts.

So - what are you waiting for? The repeal of Obamacare? A sense of certainty with respect to the government, taxes, or the business climate? The Democrats and Republicans to function together effectively? Let us know how that works out. As we noted in our December 19, 2012 blogpost, we haven't enjoyed much certainty about anything for a long time, and it's doubtful we will any time soon, if ever. Get over it. Move ahead anyway. If you don't, others will.

As the aforementioned labor market loosens up, the pickin's will only get slimmer. Interest rates have only one direction to go, and it's not in your favor. Now's probably as good a time as any to grow your bench, before your competition for talent beats you to it.