The Evil of Shirking Management Responsibility

I spent nearly four weeks away from the office before the Christmas break. Three weeks in Edmonton where we were purchasing a small company to get a toehold in the Western Canada marketplace. Then we took a cruise for a week. The cruise, our first, was very relaxing and we’ll definitely do that again. The three weeks in Edmonton were a mixed blessing – it gave me a chance to see nearly all my family, but the acquisition didn’t go smoothly. I should have known, but hope always springs eternal that one of these will go exactly as planned.

One of the things that I discovered was that I enjoyed being away from the “nattering nabobs of negativism” in the office (a prize if you can name that quote – email me by Jan.31^st). My employer is, as one customer once said, the “bastard stepchild” of the union of two large companies. And those two firms had completely different operating philosophies. One was a shirt and tie kind of place with lots of written processes and procedures. The other was a jeans and t-shirt place with an “anything goes” type of attitude. Put them together and what do you get? Chaos. Of course, egos were bruised as one side or the other had people appointed to management positions and changes were implemented. You’ve been there before.

But that was 8 years ago for crying out loud. And many of the veterans are still whining and moaning about how things used to be and how terrible their life is. We’ve had some tough financial times, and staff have lived through some layoffs and wage cuts. We even had a year where we had a mandatory day off per month without pay. I never had the day off, but the paycheck still had the deduction. Lots of people think they should be promoted and question the promotions that others get.

So I discovered that the negativism of the place has really been draining me. I heard that the temp agency we use has reported that some of the temps even comment on the negativism. In the old office, it was like bad karma. It was in the air we breathed. I think of CEO thought that moving to a new office would purge the evil, but it looks like it was packed and delivered to the new building as well.

Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace says "We engage in emotional contagion. Emotions travel from person to person like a virus." Well duh, was my first thought. But is it important? Does it affect output if staff are negative? Barsade’s findings: Employees' moods, emotions, and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership. Negative emotions yield negative results.

The negativism in our place is work focused. I’m not talking about the occasional grumps or bad hair days we all have from time to time. This is people being consistently negative about their jobs and the company. And you know what I think? If you don’t like your job or the company you work for, go get another job.

Managers are shirking their responsibility by not dealing with this issue. And it’s a front line managers responsibility to handle it. Part of the problem might be that it’s managers that are the disenchanted. Still, those up the food chain need to fill their responsibility by dealing with it.

It’s not a manager’s job to make the employee feel happy and joyous. As a manager, I can’t help you feel happy about life if you’re depressed over your spouse’s fidelity or your inability to make your car payment or any of the other pressures of life. I remember a great Youtube clip about a young man and older man on a bus in Korea. The older man was loudly talking on his cell phone and the young man politely asked him to keep the noise down. Bus Uncle exploded in a rant that went on for five minutes. I keep waiting for the kid to say “Alright, old timer. I asked you nice. Now I’m going to shove that cell phone…” But he never did. He was always polite and respectful. But one line from the old guy has stayed with me:

“Pressure? I got pressure. Everyone got pressure!”

When we go to work, we are on stage. We have a role to perform. And that means that if our emotions are in turmoil, we need to suck it up and put on our stage makeup and get on with the show. Everyone got pressure.

Being a manager means dealing with under performers. I find that managers fear this part of their job. It’s natural to want to avoid confrontation, but if you are a real manager, you have to deal with the issues that negatively affect performance. This attitude is toxic, and it has to be eliminated if the organization is going to grow and thrive. Positive attitudes are like oxygen. It helps things grow. Negative attitudes are like diesel exhaust. It poisons the air and kills things. And your responsibility as a manager is to make the business grow. Do your job.

More on managerial responsibility later.