Negativity in the Workplace

It seems the effects of the Global Financial Crisis haven’t quite left us just yet.

It appears that people, at work especially, are more cynical and less forthcoming and in some cases workers have taken to making nasty comments about their colleagues.

Recently a worker was sacked for what was called ‘backbiting’. The actions were deemed serious misconduct by claiming that one colleague was “lazy” and another was not “competent.”

The matter went before Fair Work Australia (FWA) who awarded the applicant compensation as backbiting did not constitute serious misconduct.

Notwithstanding, some managers may see the need to introduce policies to address such issues as this type of negativity will impact upon the culture of the workplace.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the way people feel at work, these include:-

• Excessive Workloads,
• Boredom or lack of challenge at work,
• Concerns regarding Security,
• Distrust of Management,
• Lack of Recognition,
  

Ideally, managers should try to ensure that employees do not get involved and/or participate in such negative actions, as becoming involved will help the problem ‘snowball.’

Good managers will do more than manage and/or recruit people… they are required to address and eliminate such negativity. Even if its coming from just one person, that’s enough to permeate through the workplace. Unfortunately, grumpiness, nastiness, laziness and stupidity are remarkable contagious!

To affect this in the workplace takes some doing and some managers aren’t equipped to deal with it… sadly these managers just end up tolerating the problem which of course creates an environment that is constantly unsatisfactory.

Negative and/or cynical workers are detrimental to the success of the business and its culture, managers must address these problems through performance management (i.e. counselling or re-training)…if however these initiatives don’t work then you may be left with little alternative!