Just read a story about a woman who works with a manager that screams, storms around, disciplines & mocks people publicly, and frequently uses threats as part of her management technique arsenal. Apparently upper management and human resources have been made aware of this garbage. I don’t know their excuse, but it sounds like this manager doesn’t know the difference between “shrew” and “shrewd.”
Posts Tagged boss
Don’t forget the “d”
Sep 30
I just found these stories. I’d saved it under a title that I’m sure made sense at the time, but upon recall, it made me think it was a different document.
Background – all three of these encounters happen the same morning, in the same building, for the same organization.
Scene 1 – I arrive to teach a seminar about Flex Spending Accounts. My mood is set, I feel great because I’m speaking and training today. I’m especially pumped because I love the thrill of applying my inspirational approach to financial matters that people expect to be boring (I have a financial services background). I enter the building and check in with security. A guard takes me to my first encounter.
In introduce myself to the leader who looks put out. She starts by treating me like I am a criminal or have done something wrong. Angrily she says: “I don’t know who you are!” She didn’t hide that she was annoyed and put out. She next challenged me as though I was lying “who sent you here? Who are you supposed to see? I thought this was Insurance, nobody told me you are here!” What’s flex spending?!
Scene 2 – The insurance rep and I (we’d both been invited by the main office) were in a conference room to answer questions one-on-one. The first employee that the Insurance rep (we were both scheduled for the day) had to deal with wanted the rep to make the changes for her. The rep didn’t have a laptop with her and the employee got snippy “your website doesn’t work!” The rep tried to verbally get the woman to come back to find out what the problem was. The woman was determined to be a snot and turned her back on the rep and walked out ignoring the pleas of the insurance rep to try to identify the problem to fix it.
Scene 3 – It is lunch time and I am in the employee cafeteria. Across the table from me is a woman who’s just sat down with her lunch. “This is a hamburger without the bun!!!” She was angry, you could tell she felt cheated. “They call this a patty melt! What the hell is that?! It’s a hamburger without the bun. By law this is a hamburger with no bun, everybody knows that!” She slams her food around looking hateful and angry.
This is the GarbageFactor™ in toxic doses. This whole building needs to be wrapped in a quarantine tent and a dose of attitude adjustment pumped in. Seriously folks, I’m sure many of you have worked in an environment like this, but what makes me so passionate about this one is that it was an elementary school. The “leader” was the school principal. The other two scenes were with teachers. This is crazy. No one should have to work with people with attitudes this bad, never mind subject our kids to it.
I have an assignment today. Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are behaving like one of these people. If you are, find out what the cause is. This is beyond bad attitude, this is toxic behavior. If you need to get out, find a new job as fast as you can. If you need a break, take it. If you need to learn how to deal with the problem, take a seminar. If you need a shrink, find one. Whatever you do, take some positive action because everyone around you is being infected and you won’t be able to break the cycle of negativity until you do something different.
If you’re working in this kind of environment, your solutions are the same. If you need to get out, find a new job as fast as you can. If you need a break, take it. If you need to learn how to deal with the problem, take a seminar or read a book (mine is a great pick http://shop.marianmadonia.com). If you need a shrink, find one.
Whatever you do, take some positive action because everyone around you is being infected and you won’t be able to break the cycle of negativity until you do something different. If you are in a leadership position and this describes your environment, don’t go it alone if you’re not trained in turning this type of situation around. Bring in a consultant who specializes in workplace relationships (I know a few, so let me know if you need a referral). If you think a seminar or program would help, that’s my specialty (check out my video’s at http://youtube.com/marianmadonia). And if you need it, contact an arbitrator to help resolve conflict in specific relationships.
We all want to work in a job that has as little garbage as possible. What can you do today to reduce it?
Not long ago, I met Charlie, an employee of a large manufacturing firm. Let’s just say we all grew up with the food product his company makes. I talked with Charlie about the company’s work environment, and he told me that the company was in bankruptcy, that he hadn’t gotten a raise in 3 years, and that the only information that he got on how the company was doing was what he was able to get on the news or over the internet.
This is nuts! What is this management team thinking? Do they ask themselves about the impact on staff or are they so overwhelmed by company problems that they can’t see past themselves?
I’m curious, does management understand and recognize that many (if not most) employee’s would have a hard time staying positive, committed, and hard working under these conditions? Is this management so deluded as to think that people “ought to just be happy they have a job in this economy”?
Unless they are in the habit of hiring saintly types, it’s not likely that too many people are going to be able to remain positive, committed and hard-working for an extended period in those circumstances. I’m not suggesting that employees don’t have the capacity to do it, what I am suggesting is that it is unrealistic to expect it from employees because “it’s what they are paid to do.”
Employees are paid to do the job, but there are expectations that are unwritten that go along with the agreement to provide work for pay. Though it is not in the job description, employees expect to work in a positive environment, they expect to be kept informed, and they expect to at least be able to keep their financial footing which means they will get raises equal to the inflation rate. If these circumstances are not being met, management should consider that they are fortunate if they have positive, committed, and hard-working employees.
Oh, and one question: How many executives got bonuses during this same time period?
When you don’t know what to do, you won’t until you learn something new. Use a lack of answers as a trigger to go learn something new so that you can find the answers. Don’t know how to pay for your kid’s education? Learn everything you can about financing college. Having trouble with a relationship? Learn everything that you can about dealing with people and communicating. Having trouble with a boss? Learn how to deal with difficult people.
If you can’t wait to hear all 90 ways to deal with garbage, you can always order the book.
Book "No More Garbage: 90 Ways to Deal with Change, Challenges & Chaos
Thank you for being a fan of the GarbageFactor. Get $2 off “No More Garbage” by using this special coupon code, garbage09. It will ask you for the code at the end when you enter payment info. Here’s the link to get the book: http://shop.marianmadonia.com/product.sc?productId=1
While working out with my new trainer at the gym, we started talking about the GarbageFactor™. He shared with me a story about a client (I’ll call her Sara) who was working really hard to lose weight. Sara had made a serious commitment to her weight loss and was watching everything that she ate to be sure that it was healthy.
At work one day, Sara joined her co-workers for a luncheon that her boss had planned for her team. The menu that Sara’s manager chose left her with no healthy options for eating. Committed to her goal, yet also wanting to be a part of the festivities, Sara ate a few bites and spent the rest of her time socializing with her co-workers.
When they returned to work, Sara’s boss called her into his office. He immediately ripped into her accusing her of “not being a team player” because she “refused to eat at lunch today.”
I can think of lots of things that would be legitimate complaints about someone not being a team player. This isn’t one of them. This manager needs to go back to training to learn about what teamwork is and isn’t. He also needs to learn how to deliver feedback. You don’t rip into people.
This is garbage and no one needs garbage at work.
Just wait for this economy to turnaround. Everyone with toxic levels of garbage being dumped on them at work now will be doing the dumping later. They’ll be dumping high levels of turnover. How do you like that garbage?
By the way, Sara got even in the end. She lost the weight and the job. No more garbage for Sara!
