Taking Out The Trash In Your Workplace

You should never infect a work environment with bad-tempered vermin/employees!

For starters, the science behind this lackluster personality: bad attitudes are often a direct result of too much stress on the body. In today’s economy, major concerns over job security, lack of pay, and a sense of being harassed by coworkers or bosses is bringing out the worst in a lot of people (you guys know who you are, or at least should) and this is sort of understandable (sort of). However, some jerks are just plain mean and grumpy all the time, and seem to thrive off of causing anyone who’ll actually listen to them as much grief as humanly possible.

The way I see it, everyone who earns a paycheck has a responsibility to pack a bag full of two things to work each and every single day, regardless of whether they’re the janitor or the CEO (or anyone in between). The first thing is a good, if not great, attitude, and the second is a little bit of respect for everyone that they are going to encounter during their workday. Yes, I know that this is kind of stating the obvious, but I also know that a lot of mean idiots don’t listen to this kind of advice (note: they should)!

People are always going to follow the path of least resistance when things aren’t perfect in their work or personal lives (the reason: it’s easy for them to let their emotions get the best of them) and crappy attitudes and a lack of respect towards everyone else is often, sadly, a byproduct of taking this easy way out. However, nothing good ever comes from having a poor attitude, and the people that just can’t seem to bring anything positive to the office also don’t typically ever contribute anything special to a highly productive work environment.

My friend, attitude is everything! You can be taught all of the skills and procedures to correctly do any job out there, but I truly believe that you can’t be taught to be nice. If you are trying to change someone at work right now, don’t bother: it’s going to be a never-ending battle, which in the long run will leave you both exhausted and frustrated.

This personality flaw is a pretty common virus, just ask anyone. If you are like most normal people out there, as you read this article, you can probably think of a bunch of times during your workday in which you overheard a jerk of a coworker complain loudly enough for everyone to hear, “I never got my break” (even though they really don’t work all day) “I can’t wait to leave in four hours and thirty- two minutes” (these are the clock counters), or “I just got here and I’m already having a bad day” (man, I hate that guy. He’s a real downer).

Managers: keep the following in mind to make things run much smoother under your watch (this will also cause you to get more raises and promotions — trust me!):

Employees communicate with each other everyday. They can and will mimic good and bad behavior, depending upon what they see others doing. They will work hard for managers that make their jobs easier and will put in only what’s necessary for those that don’t.

Employees also communicate with customers. Many times, the same talk that is done internally is delivered directly to the customer. It can be one of excitement and genuine friendliness, or it can be done grudgingly and with very little personal contact. With this in mind, just know that customers ultimately decide whether a company succeeds or fails.

What are your customers really seeing? Do they see a helpful staff of workers devoted to creating and delivering the best possible business performance and policies, which helps guarantee that they are receiving the quality of products and service that the company as a whole has promised, every time? If not, it’s time to clean a little house!

No one works in a vacuum — no one! Attitudes cause a chain reaction. When you hire bad seeds, their nasty attitudes affect all of your employees. Then those employee’s attitudes are going to affect your much-needed customers, and these customers are the lifeblood of your business. The result of bad attitudes in any company (no matter how big or small) is lost business and eventual job cuts.

As for all the sour-faced leaders out there (you know who you are): show me a manager with a bad attitude and I’ll show you a poor leader! While this sounds simple enough, I have found that one of the most often overlooked leadership qualities is that of a positive attitude. Now, as a manager, how can you seriously expect to inspire, motivate, radiate confidence, and rally the troops with a lousy attitude? The simple answer is that you can’t — it just won’t work (no ifs, ands or buts about it). Managers with bad attitudes not only fail to engage their workforce, but they also quickly find themselves shown the front door as their attitude’s impact on performance becomes visible to the ones who sign their over-priced paychecks.

Always remember this (if you care about your job, that is): as a manager or owner of a company, you should have the sheer comfort of knowing that you have spent the necessary time to hire wisely, train completely and consistently work on developing a relationship of pure respect between all staff and management — this is the true meaning of success!

With all this in mind, start choosing your employees wisely from this day forth (and throw the poisoned apples out in the process)!