Strategy #12: Eradicate emotional toxicity in the workplace

The most frequent question I’m asked in my speaking engagements is some variation of this: How do I deal with the negative people around me who suck the energy and enthusiasm right out of me? Whenever I hear that question, it strikes me that the very fact it’s being asked reflects a lack of leadership in that person’s organization. People should be able to come to work without having the life drained out of them by negative, bitter, cynical, sarcastic Pickle-Suckers.

This is a serious and pervasive problem. To gain a feel for the magnitude, just start listening to the conversations that you hear around you in the company cafeteria. Chances are you will NOT hear people talking about how lucky they are to actually be getting paid for the privilege of doing such important and meaningful work. Quite to the contrary, our observational studies suggest that between 10% and 15% of all paid hours in the typical organization are wasted on the 3-Cs of Negativity: Criticizing, Complaining, and Commiserating!!
If you tolerate a workplace environment that is characterized by toxic emotional negativity, you will attract and retain toxically negative people. Over time, these Pickle-Suckers will inevitably drive away your most enthusiastic, optimistic, and capable people. On the other hand, if you create a high level of intolerance for toxic emotional negativity that’s reflected in complaining, rumor-mongering, and finger-pointing, you will eventually drive the Pickle-Suckers to work for the competition, since they won’t be able to tolerate all the positive people around them – people who refuse to wallow around in the emotional swamp of victimhood and self-pity.

Here is an analogy I often use when selling the idea that you can create a “Pickle-Free” organization: at one time, cigarette smoking was tolerated almost everywhere. You couldn’t go to a restaurant without coming out smelling like you’d had dinner in an ashtray. And as soon as the seatbelt light went off on the airplane, all the smokers lit up. Almost instantly, the cabin was full of toxic cigarette smoke. Today, of course, anyone who lit a cigarette on an airplane would immediately be on intimate terms with an air marshal. There has been a sea change in our attitudes about what constitutes acceptable behavior (i.e. not fouling the air with toxic smoke).

It’s the same with toxic promotional negativity in the workplace. Once people appreciate how wonderful life can be when you’re not being suffocated by toxic emotional negativity, they simply won’t tolerate it.  In the worst case, all the good people will relocate to organizations where they don’t have to put up with it, leaving you stuck with a den of Pickle-Suckers to serve your customers and care for your patients. I was recently speaking with the senior human resources executive at an organization that is facing a multi-million dollar financial shortfall.  “How long would it take for you to wipe out that deficit if we could simply eliminate complaining and increase enthusiasm?” I asked. His answer: “About six weeks.” Six weeks!!!!!

Two great questions:  1) Is it possible for someone to be a negative, bitter, cynical, sarcastic Pickle-Sucker in the break room and then become a genuinely enthusiastic customer servant or compassionate caregiver, or is one of the two personae a fake (and do customers and patients see right through the fraud)? 2) Is it possible for someone to be a negative, bitter, cynical, sarcastic Pickle-Sucker at work and then go home and become a genuinely nurturing and empowering parent, or is that person more likely to be going home to raise a brood of Junior Dilberts who grow into their own self-sabotaging attitudes about work?

Take The Pickle Pledge:  Imagine how much more pleasant your place of work would be if everyone were to truly internalize The Pickle Pledge and replace moaning and whining with gratitude and contribution. If you don’t live in Iraq, Bangladesh, or the Sudan you have nothing to complain about and everything to be thankful for. (At one of my Spark Plug organizations, they’ve posted The Pickle Pledge in every employee restroom. They call it “potty training J”)

Extra Credit:  For a free download of my article Get that Pickle Out of Your Mouth: 9 Steps to a More Positive Attitude, visit http://www.joetye.com/pickle-challenge.html.

"Nourishing relationships have a beneficial impact on our health, while toxic ones can act like slow poison in our bodies."

Daniel Goleman: Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

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