Self-Helpless: True Tales of a Working Girl: The Real Reason Why It Sucks at Work… your boss is playing games

11/30/2006

The Real Reason Why It Sucks at Work… your boss is playing games

The people that care about negativity in the workplace try all sorts of tactics. Here’s a few I found that gave me a hearty laugh. I mean, when I experienced negativity in the office, it would have been easily rectified by taking my boss completely out of the equation. That would have made my life MUCH easier. Of course that didn’t happen and so I sit here working for myself… without all that negativity, thank you very much.

Then I came across these “strategies” that bosses can use when they want to diffuse and eliminate workplace negativity. I got a good idea: How about the boss starts acting like a human being and we go from there? But no, your boss may be following the following strategies to fix YOU instead. (By the way, these are taken from Managing Workplace Negativity by Gary Topchik… naturally I had my own 2 cents to add in).

1: Recognize the negativity trigger points.

Uh, hello? I don’t know about the rest of you, but the boss acting like a jackass is my trigger point. Let’s start there.

2: Take a timeout.

Yeah I think I remember this one… back in Kindergarten.

3: Provide an attitude check-up.

They’re going to tell you exactly how you *should* act.

4: Encourage laughter or joke logs.

Not at their expense, obviously.

5: Keep thoughts in the present.

I’m going to club you over the head like a baby seal and stuff you into trash bags… right now.

6: Set a time limit for negativity.

Huh? Ok, if the boss gets to act like a jerk for 8 hours a day, every day (and that’s on the conservative side, of course), then I should be allowed 10 minutes a day to vent about it and then act like there’s nothing wrong? Is that how that works?

7: Set ground rules.

Boss: I’m going to walk all over your pride and figuratively beat you to a pulp by making you run around finishing useless tasks just for my amusement. And you’re going to like it.

Employee: I’m not worthy, master.

8: Look at quality criticism as a plus.

Criticism in the workplace should always be quality. These people don’t know what that word means. To them, they tell you how terrible a job you did and intimidate you into working harder when working smarter is really needed… on their part.

9: Collect funny objects.

What’s that supposed to be for? Can I keep a guillotine at my desk then? I mean, it’s funny for me to envision daily executions.

10: Stop the thought!

Of course!!! Because it really IS that simple!

Folks, in order for workplace negativity to transform into a positive environment, a lot more is needed for the effort. There’s always going to be negative people out there, but really the ones to start with are the managers who tend to set the tone for the workplace.

# posted by The Pied Piper @ 12:03 PM

Comments:

Thought I'd turn you all on to a site that's pretty relevant to what you discuss here. http://www.thebossawards.com. Rate you boss anonymously (good or bad) and let other people know what you think.

For justice!

# posted by