The Grumpy Effect

Attention all you Grumpy Guses and Debbie Downers, the world has finally recognized your worth! According to a researcher in Australia, grumpy people tend to think more clearly, have a better decision making process and be less gullible. This give credence to the "rose colored glasses" criticism applied to those Peppy Pam types.
Not only did the research show better decision making abilites, it also showed that mild forms of grumpiness leads to better communication skills. Perhaps this is because a grumpy person is more likely to be succinct and direct versus flowery and round about.
What does this mean in terms of the workplace? Are we all doomed to a new management trend of somber meetings and "no laugh" zones? Hopefully not. The research also shows that those with a cheerful demeanor are more creative, flexible and creative. Regardless of where you might fall in Happy-Grumpy spectrum, you now have good evidence to defend your disposition as a valuable work asset!
Feeling grumpy is "good for you", BBC NEWS

The Performance Review: Bitter Pill or Bad Medicine?

It should go without saying that I am an advocate for mental health in the workplace. It is, after all, the focus of this blog. Recently, however, I came across an article that has left me scratching my head. The article, "Time to Review Workplace Reviews" , on the New York Times website suggests that one culprit of unnecessary workplace stress is the annual performance review. Psychologist Samuel A. Culbert states that performance reviews are too subjective to be meaningful; too often bosses judge the review on their own relationship with the employee. Performance reviews are accused of being sanctioned "workplace bullying."

If we take this arguement at face value, then it seems that the real problem lies with the unethical managers who use the performance review as a whipping post and not the review in and of itself. The solution is to find better managers. If the arguement, however, is that the problem lies within the review itself, that brings up a question for debate:

Would discontinuing the annual performance review "wimpify" the American worker? I will certainly not try to argue that a review is a pleasent experience. It is clearly a stressful event. I would also say the same is true for many things in life: taxes, mamograms and final exams to name a few. All of these things have something in common; they are more or less necessary, required parts of life. Furthermore, stress is an unavoidable aspect of life. Do we create a workforce full of "soft" employees who are unable to be resilient? When employees cannot face critique from bosses and peers interally, how do they handle criticism from customers or competitors external to the company?

Not all stress is "bad" stress. Consider the fact that it is physical stress that makes our muscles stronger and our reflexes quicker. The same can be said for healthy amounts of mental stress. It can be a motivator which strengthens resolve and self-confidence. Perhaps we should not rush to throw out the performance review, but instead focus on creating ethical management and resilient employees.

Under the Gun

Monday morning, 9am and you realize that you've already double booked an appointment, lost the directions to a sales call, or prepared notes for next week's presentation instead of this week's. Bonus points if you have realized all three things at once. Being under the gun, behind the eight ball, dropping the ball...we've all had those moments. Our sense of organization suddenly crumbles. How we react next will determine if we can pull ourselves out of the spin or or simply continue to stumble forward in a series of bad-timing dominos.

For most of us (myself included), the knee-jerk reaction is try to speed up to make up for our time-draining error: we drive a bit faster to the meeting, cut corners on the report that needs writing and skip lunch all in hopes that at the end of the day we have somehow ended up back on track. More often that not, however, we end up with a speeding ticket, a report that needs to be rewritten and 3pm fatigue that strikes us comatose. Now, instead finding our groove again, we are farther behind that we were before.

Instead, try what might go against your every impulse: stop. Stop for 5, 10 or even 20 minutes to assess what might be the issue, fix the issue if it is easily fixable, then forgive yourself and let it go. This happened to me the other day when I realized that maintaning two calendars created the perfect double booking storm. Not being able to be in two places at once instantly created stress and anxiety. Some parts of that problems were easily solved; other parts of the problem will require more than 15 minutes of my attention. I did what I could do in that brief amount of time. The harder thing to do was give myself some grace and let the mistake go. How did I finally convince myself to do this? Simple. I reminded myself that self-flagalation (stewing, reprimanding, overzealous apologizing) takes time...something that I didn't have a lot of at the present moment. Letting go of the mistake in that moment involved allowing myself to sit in my car for 2 extra minutes to feel myself return to center. I was able to go forward with the day clear headed and aware of what I needed to do to prevent that mistake from happening again. Moving on ended up creating more space instead of depleating it.

How Negative Self-Talk Can Sabatoge Your Work

We all have an inner dialogue that helps us make sense of our day. We witness the world around us and apply meaning to those events based on our own beliefs. This happens in our personal life and in our work life. This is referred to as an ABC Feedback Loop by Albert Ellis. That loop can either be negative or positive. Take the following example of Jane:

Negative Feedback Loop.
Jane has been working on a project for several months now, but she has had trouble getting her boss to take the required steps to put her project into motion (A= an activating event or fact).

Jane has an internal dialogue with herself (B= beliefs/ negative self talk/ irrational ideas):
He could care less about the effort I put in--nothing would please him 
and
Why am I always put in these situations?
and
I should have learned by now how to get my efforts at work noticed
and, finally
I must really be unworthy of attention and not much of a employee.

There are, of course, outcomes of those beliefs (C= the consequences of emotions, sensations and behavior). She feels anger and resentment toward her boss and feels a sense of worthlessness toward herself. These internalized feelings result in a headache and she is short tempered with her coworkers the rest of the day. While she might say to herself, "My boss infuriates me!", Jane's self talk and interpretation of the facts has more to do with her anger.

Refuting Irrationality
It is possible to refute the irrational ideas. Once those irrational ideas are released then there is more room to address the realities of the issue. If Jane is feeling she is unworthy, I would ask her what evidence exists for the falseness of this idea. She might say that now that she had a moment to consider it, her boss praised her on her work with another project and prior to that, had chosen her to attend a conference to represent the company. She decides that the worst thing that could rationally occur from her boss's lack of response is that he will not allow himself the time to make changes to the project. The best thing that could rationally occur is that Jane would realize that her boss trusts her to put a project in motion without his micro-managment.

There are, of course, a million different scenarios that might be more applicable to your situation. The key is to slow down, consider what the facts are, what assumptions you might be making based on your beliefs and how those assumptions are impacting your next steps. By slowing down and pulling apart the threads can increase your chance of responding to your situation based on rational fact and not irrational or unhealthy emotions.

How to Maximize Employee Motivation

Boss. Team leader. The Management. Supervisor. Whatever the title and for however many employees, leaders fall into one of two primary motivational categories: there are ones who apply only external motivation and there are ones who instill internal motivation. Of course, we know that external motivation is always necessary in the work world...ask a room full of your employees who might be willing to give up their paycheck for one week and in return, be "paid" with the self-satisfaction of a job well done. You won't get many hands in the air (except maybe Bob in the corner who thinks this might his golden opportunity to prove he's ready to "take one for the team").

But before you think I've undercut my point before I've even begun, stay with me for a moment. I like to think of motivation in terms of fuel. External motivation is a quick burning fuel. It's what gets people to sign the contract and show up to the office each morning. Internal motivation is a slower burning fuel. It's what helps a person go a bit further than what was expected of him or her.

I read a story the other day that provided the perfect example of this point. A non-profit organization asked  lawyers in a firm if they would be willing to provide services for the their clients for $30 an hour. Not one attorney stepped forward. A few months later, the same organization came back and asked if there were attorneys who would be willing to provide services to their clients pro bono. The organization had several volunteers by the end of the day. What was the difference? In the first situation, the attorneys asked themselves the question, "Am I somebody who would work for $30 an hour?" The answer was clearly "No"; the external motivation was simply not enough. In the second situation, the attorneys had to ask themselves, "Am I someone who would provide my services pro bono?" and the answer was "Yes." In this case, the internal motivation was the opportunity for those lawyers to live their personal values.

As a leader in your business, how are you providing opportunities for your team to tap into their internal motivation?


Do you:

Provide a sense of choice and competence?

Google is famous for allowing their employees to spend up to 20% of their time working on a project of their own choosing, something they feel engaged and passionate about. We all know Google's success story and this 20% "free time" has resulted in some of their most successful ventures and applications. True...we all can't be Google because be can't all afford to be Google, but there are ways to encourage choice. One way to do this also provides a sense of competence. I was just reminded of a quote from General Patton, "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." In short, stop micro-managing and you will build a sense of choice and competence in your team members. It might seem more efficient on the front end to tell your team how a project should be done versus asking them for their suggestions and expertise. However, if they are invested in the process, they will be more invested in the product.

Provide a sense of progress?

I am a distance runner; I run for myself and no one else. It's one of the few things I can truly say that about. Still, when I run a race, I need to see those mile markers! A few years ago I was running a half marathon and had passed the 11 mile marker. After 10 minutes had past, I started looking for mile 12. It never came. My logical self told me that I somehow missed it...had turned to look the other way or zoned out. Furthermore, my logical brain reminded me that I had run this course before and I was certainly beyond the 12 mile mark. This is where the brain gets tricky, however. For all its ability to be "logical", in times of stress and strain, it is anything but! I began to convince myself that mile 12 was never going to come...and therefore the race would never be complete. I would simply continue to slog ahead, muscles burning, disheartened for all of eternity. My body began to actually feel heavier and my pace dropped off. About that time, I came upon the 13 mile marker that confirmed what my logical brain already knew...that the race was almost over. The emotional part of my brain, however,  needed the reminder and encouragement that I was nearing my goal. I instantly felt lighter, faster and stronger to push through the finish line. 

Yes, you might provide your team members with a definitive finish line, but are you providing them with mile markers?


Provide a sense of meaningfulness?

If you are feeling cynical, you might question whether or not all jobs have meaning. We often reserve the concept of "meaningfulness" for when it is applied to the "greater good." Jim from The Office might chafe at me telling him that he could find meaningfulness in selling paper. So how can we expand this idea of meaningfulness?

Does your team have the ability to connect with the customers/ clients they serve? When we lose sight of who our work affects and how, we have a tendency to become less internally motivated by the work we do. 

Do you provide your team with the ability to grow, learn and challenge themselves? Taking the time to ask a team member to reflect on his or her last work experience is inherently intrinsic. It shows that you value you THEIR opinion of the teams' performance or experience. Instead of going straight for "Let me tell you what I saw from your last performance/ project/ report", instead go for, "Tell me about your experience in this last round of client meetings." It shows that you expect that they find meaning in what they do. Furthermore, this should not be saved for the annual evaluation or only after a big event, but weekly and in small ways. 

Similarly, when a team member experiences a success, instead of solely providing extrinsic praise ("You've done a great thing for this company!"), include praise that promote intrinsic pride, ("Wow...that was a big win! Tell me what that was like for you!). 


The amazing thing about a motivated employee base is not just in the monetary gains for the company, but there are gains in the harder to measure values of employee satisfaction, lower stress levels and lower turnover.

Blame Game

When it comes to workplace stress, it is an understandable reaction to blame someone or something else for that stress. After all, it's called "workplace stress" so it must be work's fault. A person experiencing workplace stress or burnout is likely to fall into the trap of blaming the boss, team leader or co-workers for that stress. It's exactly that, however: A Trap! Blaming creates a sense of being stuck and helpless. Anytime we feel helpless, we begin to see ourselves as powerless and unable to change our situation. It is difficult, if not impossible, to work from a position of empowerment and be proactive when we identify ourselves as a victim.

As a side note, blaming triggers stress hormones like adrenaline. Adrenaline is useful when it is from challenge-focused, primary arousal (survival situations, competition and even job situations like a big presentation); however, long-term affects of adrenaline from secondary arousal (vague, persistent worrying) eventually depletes a person's energy and can actually damage one's health. Simply put, no one can stay in "fight or flight" mode indefinitely. It's exhausting!

But what if my boss really is a huge jerk?

Fair enough. There are plenty of people in the world who seem to serve the sole purpose of making life difficult. It is true that we have very little, if any, control over how people behave. That does not mean we are trapped. It means we have difficult choices. A person might be in a miserable situation at work, but that pain seems more tolerable to him or her than the alternative. If a person allows those other choices to remain vague, he is once again allowing that secondary, useless form of adrenaline to take hold. The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook outlines five questions to ask yourself to help identify your actual choices:

1) What specific steps could you take to change a major stress producer at work? Notice that the question doesn't ask how you could eliminate stress altogether...focus on one major stress.

2) What would you risk in attempting that change?

3) What steps could you take to change jobs altogether?

4)What would you risk in attempting to make that change?

5) What steps could you take to change your perception of a risk so it seems more tolerable to you? i.e. if the risk is not having any idea how to begin a new job search, would you be willing to meet with a recruiter or career counselor to gain advice and insight?

The outcome of these questions will either be "Yes, I am ready to make some changes in my work life" or "No, I am going to choose to live with the current conditions because it still seems less painful than the alternative. I may choose differently in the future." Both are fair and appropriate answers. It will vary depending on your situation. Asking questions like the ones above is not a one time questionnaire. Ask yourself these questions every month or so. Do the answers change? Has your tolerance for risk changed with the evolving situation? When we recognize the choices at our disposal (whether we are ready to take them or not) it creates a sense of empowerment. We then move from the trapped victim to the empowered person making the best choice for the current situation.

Don't Assume Yourself into Stress!

When workload increases, it is natural to experience stress. Often what creates that stress is when assumptions (also called "faulty cognitions") trigger painful emotional reactions. Take the following scenario:

Mike looks at the report that he has been asked to do with dread. A few months ago this task would have been outside of his job description, but he's been required to take on more as the company has reduced staffing. He feels insecure in his ability to do the task correctly. As he stares at the unfinished work, he thinks, "I've got to complete this report perfectly or I'm going to end up with a pink slip on my desk." His second thought is, "My boss is doing this to me and it's not fair." Often, the third thought (either consciously or subconsciously) is, "I'm trapped here!"

The first thought Mike has creates anxiety, his second thought makes him angry and his third triggers depression. Much of Mike's stress is caused not by the task itself, but on the assumptions about the task. He has made two critical faulty cognitions:

1) His first assumption (faulty cognition) is that the report must be perfect. The trouble with "perfect" is that it is very hard to quantify. Whether the goal of "perfect" was self-imposed or demanded by the boss, it is necessary to define what "perfect" looks like. If it means that budgeting figures in the report must be accurate, that is a more manageable goal than "perfect" because it is targeted and verifiable. It is just like a child afraid of a dark closet. The fear of the unknown is more frightening than the known. Define the goal of the task specifically.

2) His second faulty cognition is that the boss will fire him if the report isn't perfect. Is this a realistic assessment of what might happen for Mike's situation? Perhaps...but perhaps not. Being realistic also means being specific. Being specific reduces the vague sense of doom. If Mike can slow his thinking down, he might begin to assess his situation more accurately: "If I don't get those figures right the first time around, I'm going to have to stay late tonight. I had hoped to get out on time to meet friends for dinner. I'll be disappointed if I can't, but I can manage that."

Any time you begin to have vague, catastrophic fears about consequences of missing your mark at work, remind yourself of what you know is a realistic consequence. If you don't know...FIND OUT! Ask your boss or team leader what would happen if you failed to meet a deadline, turned in a report with errors or had a poor performance in a meeting.

Reducing assumptions will reduce anxiety. The snowball stops rolling; the angry act of blaming and the depressed feeling of being trapped don't have to occur.

Up Next: I've passed anxiety and I'm already knee deep in blaming! NOW what do I do???

How Employee Mental Health Affects a Company's Bottom Line

I read a short article entitled "The Hidden Cost of Turnover", which highlights both measurable and hard to measure costs of employee turn-over. The article detailed everything from the cost of recruiting fees to the "learning curve" cost of a new employee who might take time to perform at peak levels. The article didn't provide any "take away" figures on what exactly that cost might be, so I decided to look into it myself. In a study done by Bliss & Associates, Inc, they found that the cost of turnover is 150% of the employee's annual compensation. That figure grows to 200% to 250% when turnover is within managerial and sales positions. Costs included both direct expense such as advertising and temporary staffing and the indirect cost of lost productivity. With figures that dramatic, the cost of turnover quickly stops being "hidden." The next logical question in the article was "are you doing enough" to decrease turnover?


And then the article ended.


That's like leading a horse, not to water, but to an empty creek bed. Here's some of the water that was missing:


In today's job market, companies might not worry about employee retention. People who have jobs are not only glad to have them, but are often willing to carry large workloads, log extra hours and even work in hostile work environments in order to keep a steady salary. While stress and less than ideal work conditions are an unfortunate necessity at times, if employees feel an undue amount of stress and burnout, they are more likely to leave that company when the job market stabilizes. A company expecting a rebound or even growth after a period of decline, might instead find themselves hit with a costly employee exodus.


As a manager or team leader, here are questions you should ask yourself:


1) Do I know the signs of workplace stress both in an individual and at a team level?


Chronic stress has affects on the physical body. Workers might experience more frequent headaches, be more susceptible to seasonal illnesses and report difficulty resting or sleeping during time off. This, naturally, can create an increase in absenteeism. Chronic stress can also decrease cognitive ability and stamina. Trouble concentrating or completing assignments is reported as a result of chronic stress.
At the team level, low morale will result in a lack of cohesiveness in decision making, more frequent office conflict and lower work quality.


2) Do I know how to decrease workplace stress for my employees?


While it is tempting to squeeze out every bit of time from employees when a company does not have the ability to increase staff size, it is important to realize that more hours in the work day does not equal more productivity. Maintaining healthy work hours and work boundaries keeps employees mentally sharp and more efficient. Challenge: for one or two weeks, avoid sending emails or work-related requests after business hours. During that one week, require employees to honor business hours; if it is time to go at 5pm, they should go home. If a project or deadline makes that impossible, require that they leave early the next day. After a week or weeks, do you notice a difference? Reports have been made that companies who work a four day week are just as productive as those who work a five day week. Could it be because those who work four days a week are more mentally rested and energized for their work?


Other areas for consideration include:
- Do employees experience chronic work overload?
-Do they experience unfair treatment by co-workers or team leaders?
-Are the expectations of employees reasonable or impossible?
-Have employees received adequate training? This is especially valid if employees have been asked to perform tasks outside of their job description due to downsizing.
-How are employees recognized for their work, especially when it is "above and beyond" the call?
-Is there clear direction about company and individual priorities?


3) Do my employees know how to manage their workplace stress?


Perhaps the question you are asking right now is, should it be my responsibility to make sure they can manage their stress? In short, yes. It will have an affect on your bottom line; more importantly, however, depending on the type of industry you are in, it is unethical to knowingly use chronically stressed, burned out employees. This is especially true in health care, helping professions such as counseling and social work, and in education. Make wellness and self-care a priority for your company and employees. Encouraging people to participate in their own care shows them that they are seen as whole individuals, not simple "workers."


Recently, an accountant for a small company expressed to her boss that she was feeling unfocused and tense because lately she hadn't been able to find the time to run. This was something that she had always used as a stress reliever. Her boss would have every right to simply ignore the statement. After all, the work day is the work day. Instead, he said, "How can we make it work that you get done what you need to do for this company and still have time for your run?" In a matter of 5 minutes they had decided that one day a week, she would come in an hour earlier so she could leave for a run at the end of the work day. It's my guess that this woman not only feels less stress and anxiety, but also has more positive feelings and loyalty toward her boss and company.


Workplace stress can be difficult to navigate for managers and employees alike. Indeed, we did not even address the burnout that is experienced by management! If your company has arrangements with an EAP, use it! If not, contact us at Lotus Counseling and Consulting to help you manage workplace stress and, in turn, make your company more productive and profitable.