I've narrowed down my first Management & Organizational Behavior paper from motivation (or lack there of) to simply Negativity In The Workplace. There's a hell of a lot written about it in the news and it's something I've seen in the various places I've worked (sometimes me, sometimes other people). This paper is only supposed to be 2 pages...I have a feeling I'll be able to write a lot more and then cut it down. If you have anything to add to my paper, feel free to comment....a personal story and idea to research...whatever.
I went to Tino's 10 yr high school reunion this weekend. It was nice...and I met a girl who dated a guy from my high school...very small world. Had a nice weekend.
Now it's back to another busy work-week...and Tino has some family members from the old country coming to America (uh-mer-eee-ka) this weekend for the Columbus Day festivities.
Ciao!
3 Comments:
Here's a negative workplace story:
When I was a teacher, I oversaw another teacher in the teacher's lounge putting A's on all the papers if they were simply turned in. It didn't matter if they weren't complete, wrong, etc. I asked why, and the teacher said "hey, that's something if I can get them to turn in at least this much." And this was a veteran teacher of 20+ years. Way to instill a sense of integrity and completion into your students, nimrod. And people wonder why I retired from that profession...
Only two pages? You could write volumes about the lack of morale and motivation at my last job. Here's the scenario: You typically stay with a project from beginning to end, which normally lasts 18-24 months. All during this development cycle, two levels of management micromanage so much that you can hardly breathe. Instead of doing the right thing, you end up doing just what they tell you. After a while, you even send out emails using the exact wording that your management specifies.
All along the way, each mistake you make (even the most trivial) must be examined, documented, and you must put together a PPT slideshow that details to management how you're never going to screw that up again.
When it's the end of the 2-year development cycle and your product finally ships, there are no words of appreciation for all of the nights and weekends you sacrificed along the way....no matter how many millions of systems shipped, or how many billions of dollars were made from the work you did. Instead, there's a huge 3-hour meeting (a "post-mortem") to revisit EVERY SINGLE MISTAKE that was made over the course of development.
So, when it's all said and done, and you've been beaten up about 1000 times, you're left with an empty, hollow feeling. You'd like to feel a little proud of what you've done, but all along the way management just tells everyone that they all suck. It finally gets to the point where you either stop caring and just do what you can to get beaten up as little as possible, or you quit.
"Negativity In The Workplace" should be the name for my job. Recently, two employees left because they hated their jobs. Another employee who has not left yet is fixin' to kill the two bosses. He is such a bad apple, it's not funny. He's a great guy and good worker, but his complete hatred for his job had made it difficult to be around him. Moreover, the two bosses know he's a bad apple, but can't/wouldn't fire him. On a personal level, I'm good friends with the guy, but sometimes I can't be around him during the day at work because his attitude is so negative.
You know where to find me, KL, if you need more info.
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