WORKPLACE CULTURE
EVER HEARD OF THE SAYING “ONE ENEMY IS TOO MANY, ONE HUNDRED FRIENDS TOO FEW”?
The same can be applied to workplace culture. If you have one difficult / toxic / problematic employee that is motivated to spread negativity, it often causes ripples in a workplace culture that can be hard to fix. That ripple effect (transferring of emotions / moods to a group of people) can become a wave, and if unchecked, a storm, which will affect a company’s bottom line.
A culture that was once thought of as stable and positive, can be pulled apart quite quickly by one person who grows into a negative group of people. Such changes can also be symptomatic of a culture that needed strengthening from stone-throwing in the first place. Disagreements, challenges and even conflict in the workplace are not examples of dysfunctional workplace culture – however tolerating poor behaviour is unhealthy. A culture ideally should be strong enough to pull negative forces back into line, but don’t underestimate the power of the adverse ripple effect, especially if you have supervisors / managers who may not quite have their finger-on-the-pulse or find it hard to deal with a difficult employee or colleague. To translate the quote to our workplaces – one toxic employee is too many; but a force of positive employees isn’t too few if the overall values and culture of a workplace are deep-rooted, and negative behaviour is called out in a respectful way.
If you need a hand with a difficult employee, or building a positive workplace culture, please get in touch…. you may be surprised at the ways in which we can help – be it just a few tweaks or a full employee engagement project.
The positive impact on the bottom line is irrefutable – let us tell you how by contacting us:
