One of the many reasons people are choosing to leave their employer, their boss, and/or their career is that they’re sick and tired of dealing with bad workplace behavior – behavior that often is either ignored or enabled.
Workers are simply “not gonna take it anymore.”
Although there are laws in place to protect workers from harassment and discrimination, there are no such laws that prohibit rudeness, disrespect, or other forms of being a jerk.
Consider these examples from a recent New York Times article, “No More Working for Jerks!”
- Better.com CEO Vishal Garg fired 900 employees on a Zoom call and accused them of “stealing” from the company because they put in too few hours,
- Hollywood mogul Scott Rudin threw staplers at his subordinates, and
- Steph Korey, Away’s former CEO, told her staff that she expected them to be available at all hours of the day and night and that they should stop requesting time off.
Of course, each of them later apologized, but SERIOUSLY??
Leaders, it’s time to take stock of your behavior. And senior leaders it’s time to think about the behavior you are modeling for you leadership team and, if it includes yelling to get your point across, interrupting or demeaning people in meetings, or other forms of jerkiness, find a way to change it.
Here are some ideas.
Ask for honest feedback. Jerks often rationalize their behavior, “That’s the only way I can get anything done around here…” and rarely ask for honest feedback. And often their direct reports are reluctant or afraid to speak truth to power. Give permission. Listen. Do something with what you learn.
Make treatment of employees an evaluation component. Expand leadership “performance” to include not just achievement of goals, and/or the numbers, but also how the leader’s team works together, how engaged and loyal team members are, what employee’s say about how the leader treats them.
Instill good behavior – respect, consideration, empathy, etc. – as part of the culture and expectation of all employees. Put it in writing. Communicate it. Model it. Recognize examples of it and address the lack of it, i.e., call out jerks immediately.
Say “please” and “thank you.” Always. It’s such an easy thing to do. Model it and make it a habit.
Provide coaching. All too often bad behavior is ignored or downplayed because the bad actor is meeting their numbers. Are they teachable? If so, consider coaching to give them an opportunity to change. If that fails, then it’s time to weigh the value of that one person’s performance against the loss of their team and the negative impact their behavior has on the organization overall.
Sounds like an easy decision to me.
Till next time, keep it real.
Karen
