Workplace Challenges
Working for a pessimistIt's a great morning. You wake up feeling refreshed and ready to start your day. You're so excited, that report you've been working on for weeks is finally done and handed into the boss. You whistle your way to work, smile at the bus driver and thank him for waiting for you. Just as you're about to plop yourself into your cubicle, your boss calls you into his office. Ivana Tavernese |
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 [ 2006-01-25 ] |
He tells you how surprised he is that you handed the report in on time and even though it's not the best work he's seen, it will have to do. He then hands you your next assignment.
You sluggishly walk to your chair. Drop the folders onto your desk and drop your head in shame. "Not the best work he's seen?" You think to yourself. "I guess I'm just not cut out for this job. But I thought I did well."
Pessimistic bosses can be a serious problem in today's work force, according to psychologists, professors and management consultants.
Dan Ondrack, academic director of executive programs at the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, compares a pessimistic boss to a virus.
"Like a virus, [pessimism] spreads and gradually wears people down," he says. "If it occurs at the level of co-workers it's just an irritation because you can ignore them, but at the level of supervisor, it spreads like a virus."
Marilyn Hadad, a psychology professor at Ryerson Polytechnic University, says a boss's pessimism can be devastating to his or her worker.
"How many people get stressed out and start to loose their self-esteem because they're going by the boss's judgement without realizing that this judgement is naturally low," she says.
Joan Lloyd is a syndicated columnist and management consultant. She says that pessimism can stem from the growing cynicism in higher management.
"I remember wishing I could get to that level and then when I finally got there thinking, 'Is this it?' You become critical," Lloyd says. "That's when I realized I had to leave. Some people don't leave, they stay."
Lloyd says she finds managers in their 50s and 60s particularly susceptible to a pessimistic attitude.
"They've played by the rules, and now the rules have changed." She says companies are now asking managers to share power, communicate more, and deal with younger workers with a different set of values.
She says unlike the workers of the past who were willing to give 10 or more years to a company to get management positions, today's workers want to do that in less than two years. On top of that, today's workers want to be nurtured and aided in their working development. The phrase Lloyd uses is "grow me or lose me."
Hadad agrees.
"We're a different society than we were 50 years ago," she says. "Workers today have expectations. It's not enough to give me a paycheque, now it's 'you've got to make the quality of my life decent. I want company picnics and baseball leagues. When you give me an evaluation, I want it in a constructive way.'"
HIGH-STRESS
Both managers and workers have to come half way, Lloyd says, but it starts with the manager.
"You have to put responsibility in management training courses," Hadad says. "My impression is that we haven't been paying much attention to the biases management has been coming in with. We teach them a few techniques, how to shake the pom-poms and get the group motivated, but we really don't ask them to examine themselves."
One study from Ohio State University examined the pessimistic tendencies of employers. The study, conducted by psychology professor Gifford Weary along with graduate students Darcy Reich and Stephanie Tobin, found that pessimists can control their negative outlook when judging others -- but only if they are focused on that task and not distracted by other thoughts.
The study asked subjects to watch a video of a boy putting a puzzle together and then rate his performance and overall intelligence.
DISTRACTIONS CAUSE NEGATIVITY
Pessimists gave similar ratings as optimists when they were given nothing else to think about. But when asked to memorize eight digits and recall them after the viewing, pessimists gave the boy poorer ratings.
"Pessimistic people are often aware of their negativity and can correct for that bias if they have the mental resources available when making a judgement," Weary says.
But Weary admits that in the business world, when hundreds of thoughts flood one's mind, focusing on one's pessimistic bias can be difficult.
"If you work in a high-stress, fast-paced office, it may be difficult to get a fair evaluation if your supervisor tends to be pessimistic and depressed," she says.
Many companies are now investing in workshops where employees can express their feelings in an objective environment and managers can receive private consultations.
Ondrack recalls one workshop where the consultant asked a supervisor to a private meeting after speaking with some of the employees. In this meeting the consultant discovered the supervisor was actually feeling uncomfortable with the group and was realizing that he was causing the problem. The supervisor wanted to change his behaviour.
FOUR OBJECTIVES
Lloyd says she tries to instill four objectives into managers in her training sessions.
- To have higher expectations of his or her people. Workers will feel motivated and do better.
- Be willing to give feedback to people.
- Recognize them. Show appreciation and notice when they work long hours.
"People will kill themselves if you show appreciation," Lloyd says. In fact, Lloyd says she believes burn- out is less a result of being overworked and more about being under appreciated.
- Finally, the fourth objective is to grow people. Managers should ask themselves, "How can I help make the employee better and what is it I can do?"
Most importantly, Lloyd believes a pessimistic boss can change. But as Hadad points out, change can only happen when the boss realizes that he has a bias.
"You can't fight what you can't see. You need to make people aware of it."
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