Managing Workplace Pessimism

Lucky Robertson

GM 570

Professor Timothy Staley

DeVry University

April 19, 2011

Managing Workplace Pessimism

According to Topchik (2001), pessimism is the tendency to see only the negative or worst

aspects of all things and to expect only bad or unpleasant things to happen. Workplace

pessimism is prevalent in corporate organizations and growing rapidly. Pessimism is a deciding

factor for success or failure and can be an uphill battle for managers and organizations.

Individuals who display negative emotions experience negative stress at a greater level than

others do and they tend to find dissatisfaction in their job and life in general. Some individuals

are born with pessimism while others become pessimistic because of their environment.

Psychologists argue that an individual’s personality is a combination of genetic make-up and life

experiences. Individuals who constantly convey pessimistic thoughts and actions are more likely

to engage in destructive actions. Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, companies in the

United States stand to lose three billion dollars annually because of pessimism. Generally, where

you find exhibits of pessimistic behavior by employees, you will find resistance to change and

fresh ideas.

He further states that pessimistic employees complain tremendously, unmotivated, create

a nonproductive environment and always expecting the worst in a situation. Companies lose

money because of increased customer complaints and error rates, elevated employee turnover,

absences, reduced morale, loyalty and creativity. Much of the problem comes from, but is not

limited to, workers who have lost confidence in their ability to perform assigned tasks

effectively. Moreover, they feel they do not have any say or control over the decisions made

regarding their work. Therefore, they have lost familiarity with their co-workers through

downsizings, reorganizations or remote-work alternatives. If managers do not address or deal

with pessimism, it can take over. This review will attempt to outline what causes pessimism and

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the impact faced by managers, employees and the overall workplace environment. Moreover, it

will reveal important factors managers feel are important in dealing with insidious individuals

and team pessimism. During this review, topics of discussion will be causes of workplace

pessimism and the types of pessimist. In addition, tips that management, as well as, employees

can use in their organization to reduce and prevent pessimism in the workplace will be identified.

II. Causes of Workplace Pessimism: Internal/External Contextual Issues

As noted in the Aviary Group Newsletter (2011), when we think about what causes

someone to be pessimistic we look back upon stereotypical views regarding environment versus

heredity. Moreover, we reflect what we learned in school from a scientific viewpoint that it is a

mixture of both heredity and environment. Scientist bases their claim on people’s actions,

behaviors, personality and moods. Pessimism is a pattern of negative thinking that spreads like a

disease, creating morale problems that affect the success of an organization. Like all diseases,

there are symptoms and for pessimism, they are loss of employee motivation, loyalty, creativity,

and innovation. These symptoms progress and produce negative outcomes such as, increased

errors, decreased quality, increased interpersonal conflicts, increased tardiness or absence, and

increased turnover. In his book, Managing Workplace Negativity (2001), Gary Topchik

describes the primary roots of negativity that lead to problems in an organization:

Lack or loss of competence when employees are unable to meet the needs of their work

environment, possibly due to insufficient orientation or training, or a loss of self-

confidence when they think they cannot perform as well as others.

Lack or loss of a sense of community when workers are required to float rather than

having regular assignments where familiarity and a comfort level develop.

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Lack or loss of control that comes from a feeling of powerlessness from not being part of

the decision-making process that affects one's work.

Lack of stability or loss of familiar guidelines through constant change at work that

makes staff question our competence as leaders (Tomchik, 2001, pg. 9, 10).

There is another important contributor to workplace pessimism, poor communication.

Unclear, inconsistent, and lack of open communication, in addition to poor conflict management

skills and systems contribute to unhealthy working relationships and negative work

environments. When employees are unable to change something in their workplace they feel that

they are stuck, they feel as though they are powerless. This is largely in part because

organizations and managers failing to empower their employees which in turn causes them to

communicate inappropriately or pessimistically. Pessimistic communication can be verbal or

nonverbal expressions. In order to understand how verbal communications play a role in

pessimism in the workplace, we must first understand that it is nothing more than verbal or

nonverbal abuse. Verbal abuse is an ongoing emotional environment organized by the abuser for

the purposes of control. The abuser having low regard for him or her is the underlying factor of

verbal abuse. The abuser attempts to place their victim in a position to believe similar things

about him or herself, a form of warped projection. Examples of pessimistic verbal

communication is expressing one’s frustrations or point of view by shouting, cursing,

humiliation, ridicule, criticism, harassment, manipulation and blaming.

On the other side of pessimistic verbal communication is pessimistic nonverbal

communication. Nonverbal abuse generally has nothing to do with what was said, however, there

is no mistake about it, nonverbal abuse is intended to send aggressive messages such as ―I don’t

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like you‖, or, ―I am fed up‖, or even ―In my eyes you are worthless‖. In addition, pessimistic

nonverbal communication includes body posture, facial expressions, gestures, and interpersonal

distance. It is behaviors such as, standing in your personal space, staring at you (long eye

contact), table pounding, and throwing things, leaning over you, fearsome facial expressions,

loud sighing, flipping the finger, pointing or other offensive gestures. Pessimistic nonverbal

communication is abusive because they have manipulating effects and reflects an unconscious

attempt to get one’s way without considering the needs of others. In addition, to communications

or lack thereof contributing to workplace pessimism, there are internal and external influences

that create a hostile environment. Generally, not all issues are associated with the workplace;

however, there are good reasons to believe that most do occur from work. Some internal causes

of workplace pessimism are the constant criticizing of others. Speaking badly about others

causes others to speak badly in return and this is probably one of the quickest ways to stir up

people’s emotions. When one-person talks behind the back of another, what said become public

and generally amplified in intensity. Everyone in the work place may become frustrated and

gang up on the person criticized while backbiting becomes prevalent throughout the workplace

and causing cliques to form. Another internal cause is lack of job security. Workers who feel that

their job is at risk will experience anxiety and feel that they have nothing to lose. Pessimism in

the workplace is easily subjective and fueled by these types of workers.

According to Julie Jansen (2006), ―I’d really like my job if only I didn’t have to work with other

people!‖ This simple statement may sound laughable at first, but it actually reflects a serious

problem in the workplace that has reached epidemic proportions. One of the biggest causes of

pessimism in the work environment is the inability of colleagues, at all levels, to get along with

one another. Knowledge, experience, education, and skills certainly contribute to any

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individual’s success at work; the quality of an employee’s relationships with bosses, coworkers,

and clients that will ultimately determine their happiness and productivity in the workplace. In

other words, if you have difficulty relating to or coexisting with other people at the workplace,

your chances of having a satisfying and successful work life will be severely limited. The first

time that most people really realize this is when they run into a thorny problem, conflict, or

misunderstanding with someone at work. The incident soon becomes a situation, and the

situation takes on a life of its own. It either keeps recurring or remains unresolved until a major

upheaval or unwanted change becomes inevitable.

III. Social Identity: Intergroup Conflict That Influence Conflict

Karina Korostelina (2007), notes that Social identity is now considered one of the most

popular and controversial concepts in social science. Probably no other social phenomenon has

received such intensive and rapt scrutiny from philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, political

scientists, and anthropologists. Social identity has become a prism through which the most

important aspects of social life are explored and assessed. At the same time, it is one of the most

diffuse and loose concepts in social research. The interrelation between social and individual

identity is one of the most complex and contradictory conundrums in social science. Most

identity theories clearly state that identity has two main components: individual or ―self‖ identity

(which includes role identity) and collective or ―we‖ identity (which includes group identities

and social categories). Social identity is usually described in terms of group similarities and

reflects shared interests, values, and beliefs, while individual identity is defined as a set of

individual features and provides a basis for differentiating an individual from other people. These

features have a certain constancy or at least continuity in time and space. The notion of

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individual identity reflects the idea that each individual is unique. The term still does not have a

common definition, but all theories concur that individuals are aware of their being distinct. This

understanding can be developed only through interaction, through which individuals assess

themselves as identical to or different from others. In other words, individual identity includes

self-sameness, continuity in time and space, as well as differentiation from other people. Its

stability depends on the social context and can change over time.

Personal stereotypes are made apparent in most of an individual’s actions: they reflect a

person’s social position. Stereotypes lead to explanations of events in ways that further

strengthen the positive views about the in-group and negative views about the out-group

(Crocker and Luhtanen 1990). Pettigrew (1979) defined predispositions as involving a tendency

to make internal attributions for successes of the in-group and external attributions for in-group’s

failure and to make internal attributions for out-group’s failure and external attributions for out-

group’s success the fundamental attribution error. Hewstone (1989) reviewed many studies

documenting the fundamental attribution error and found that this error leads to increased

conflict between groups,; the greater the perceived difference in the typical characteristics of the

in-group and the out-group, the greater the predisposition to hostility (Oakes 1987; Turner et al.

1994).

IV. TYPES OF PESSIMIST: Why is it so hard to work with other people?

According to Gary Topchik (2001), there are 14 different types of negative people:

The Locomotives – express their negativity by steam rolling over people. They are very

angry and hostile and take out their frustrations on others.

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The Ice People/Resisters – any change no matter how small, can upset the ice people

and cause an outbreak of negativity. They love the status quo; try to change it and their

resistance will flare up.

The Perfectionist – this person’s standard of performance are not realistic, and even

excellent work that is praised by others is unacceptable.

The Not-My-Jobbers – these individuals express their negativity by refusing to do any

task no matter how simple, if they decide it is not part of their job responsibility.

The Rumormongers – these individuals take out their negativity toward work by

spreading rumors.

The Pessimists – pessimists experience the world as an unpleasant place. They expect

the world to fall down on them, and if it does not, they do everything possible to help

bring it down.

The Uncommitted – These are the people who do not take their jobs seriously, making

their teammates work more difficult. Work is a very low priority for them.

The Criticizers – Their mission is to disagree with anything that is said. They like to be

right no matter what.

The Crybabies – Crybabies behave like children who don’t get their way. They frown,

withdraw, go off on a tirade, and literally cry.

The Sacrificers – Sacrificers are the bleeding hearts of the office. They come in early

and stay late. They will do anything you ask them to but they will, in a self-depreciating

way, complain about their workload, difficult employees, and customer or bosses.

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The Self-Castigators – These people get upset with themselves and then become

negative. They find fault with their work performance, appearance, career progress,

socioeconomic status, educational background, and so on.

The Scapegoaters – Because they cannot accept the responsibility or take the blame for

their own mistakes, scapegoaters shift the onus to others especially when they are in their

negative moods. They seem to feel better seeing others squirm or get into trouble.

The Eggshells – The eggshells are very sensitive people, and the slightest thing said to

them if misconstrued, causes them to crack. When they get too many cracks, they become

negative.

The Micros – Micros like to focus on the smallest details. When they do that a lot, or

inappropriately, they come across as being too meticulous and too negative.

Julie Jansen (2006) outlined many reasons why it is so hard to work with other people: Reason

#1: People Are Difficult, difficult people are everywhere, and each one exhibits a different brand

of bad behavior. In other words, not anyone who behaves in a way that irritates you or who do

something that you do not approve of can be labeled a difficult person. When Manchester

Consulting, a national outplacement firm, surveyed 358 U.S. organizations about the most

serious behavioral problems among their senior management, ―poor communication skills‖ was

ranked number one. ―Poor interpersonal skills‖ was cited as the major employee-relations

problem of top-level executives. Regardless of what the specific traits are, there are many

difficult people in the workplace, and there always will be.

Reason #2: Work Is Stressful Constant change, competition, technology, globalization, sterile

work environments, unrealistic expectations, and the endless pressure to communicate instantly,

without much thought or reflection— all typical of today’s workplace— can create an

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environment so stressful that it can bring out the worst in any person, even one who is typically

pleasant and easygoing.

Reason #3: Employers Don’t Facilitate People Problems Many companies talk up the

importance of working as a team, collaborating and creating consensus, yet offer compensation

plans and reward systems geared solely toward individual contribution and achievement. Sound

familiar? This mixed message, prevalent in many companies today, can promote competition and

insecurity, which can lead to self-centered, self-preserving behavior on the part of employees,

which always results in strained working relationships. Unfortunately many companies don’t

anticipate these issues and don’t do much to handle them once they have occurred. The general

consensus is that everyone is too busy to deal with people problems, focusing instead on business

results.

Reason #4: People Have Problems Personal issues can prevent anyone from nurturing and

sustaining healthy relationships at work. If you are bored, stressed out from over 4th

work or

family problems or generally frustrated or depressed, you are at high risk for neglecting or

abusing your relationships with colleagues or clients. Unhappiness breeds unhappiness. Walking

around with your head in a dark cloud can lead to friction or misunderstandings between you and

the people with whom you spend at least half your waking hours— your coworkers.

Reason #5: People Are Complex Most companies try to hire employees who will fit into their

specific corporate culture. Even if employers are reasonably successful at making the ―right

hires,‖ each individual they bring on board still has personal baggage— expectations, biases,

memories, perceptions, family dynamics, values, ways of doing things, and intangible qualities—

that he carries with him onto the ship. This unpredictable mix of different personalities,

communication styles, and work habits can lead to confusion, miscommunication, and conflict.

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Recommendations

Persistent workplace pessimism affects employee morale more than anything else does. It diverts

critical attention from the tasks and robs the energy of the organization. Knowing what people

are pessimistic about is a first step in solving the problem. Managers should talk with employees

in order to understand the degree to which the problem(s) are affecting the workplace. Whatever

the cause may be, it must be addressed before further problems are created. Although an

individual’s personality cannot be changed, their behavior in the workplace can. If managers are

seeking to improve pessimism, they must avoid certain pitfalls. Topchik (2001) outlines five

elements for successful change called VISAR:

1. Vision – The better people understand the reasons for a change, the more they will remain

positive about it.

2. Incentives – If individuals realize that a change will benefit them or the organization,

negativity subsides.

3. Skills – People become anxious - and anxious people become negative when they feel they

lack the skills needed to perform.

4. Action Plan – Individuals like to know the specific steps involved in a change. The more they

know about how it will be implemented, the more positive they remain.

5. Resources – Staff members need time, tools, money, and other resources to implement change

in a positive manner.

If you are missing one or more of the VISAR elements in a change effort, the consequences will

be negative and to manage effectively the imbalance between trust and enablement, the

organization should get as many people as possible into the peak performer category.

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The best way to keep pessimism out of the workplace is to keep it from occurring in the first

place. Some steps that will help make this transition possible are as follows:

Provide opportunities for people to make decisions about and control and/or influence

their own job. The single most frequent cause of negativity is traceable to a manager or

the organization making a decision about a person’s work without their input. Almost any

decision that excludes the input of the person doing the work is perceived as negative.

Make opportunities available for people to express their opinion about workplace policies

and procedures. Recognize the impact of changes in such areas as work hours, pay,

benefits, and assignments of overtime hours, compensation pay, dress codes, office

location, job requirements, and working conditions. These factors are close to the mind,

heart and physical presence of each individual. Changes to these can cause serious

negative responses. Provide timely, proactive responses to questions and concerns

Treat people as adults with fairness and consistency. Develop and publicize workplace

policies and procedures that organize work effectively. Apply them consistently. Do not

create rules for all employees, when just a few people are violating the norms. You want

to minimize the number of rules directing the behavior of adult people at work. Treat

people as adults; they will usually live up to your expectations, and their own.

Help people feel like members of the in-crowd; each person wants to have the same

information as quickly as everyone else. Provide the context for decisions, and

communicate effectively and constantly. If several avenues or directions are under

consideration, communicate all that you know, as soon as you know it. Reserve the right

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to change your mind later, without consequences, when additional factors affect the

direction of ultimate decisions.

Afford people the opportunity to grow and develop. Training, perceived opportunities for

promotions, lateral moves for development, and cross training are visible signs of an

organization’s commitment to staff.

Provide appropriate leadership and a strategic framework, including mission, vision,

values, and goals. People want to feel as if they are part of something bigger than they

are. If they understand the direction, and their part in making the desired outcomes

happen, they can effectively contribute more.

Provide appropriate rewards and recognition so people feel their contribution is valued.

This is such a broad and important topic. Suffice to say, reward and recognition is one of

the most powerful tools an organization can use to buoy staff morale.

More and more companies are increasingly addressing the issue ―pessimism‖ for their

employees. If one person in the department is negative, there is a possibility that the entire

workplace can become negative. It is always best to address the situation when it starts and not

let it prolong. If management really cares about their employees, they will do whatever they can

to keep them happy and productive. When management starts to show that the work is more

important than the people are, pessimism will arise. Managers must remember that without

people, there would not be a need for managers. Making sure that every employee feel

appreciated is one of the best things a manager can do to prevent pessimism in the workplace.

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Summary/Reflections

Given the broadness and importance of this review makes it easy to come to the

conclusion that rewarding and recognizing employees is an effective tool that organizations can

use to reduce and prevent pessimism in the workplace. As organizations are widely addressing

the issue of employee pessimism they are coming to terms with the fact if one person is a

pessimist can cause others in the workplace to tack on this same pessimistic attitude. Managers

at all levels of an organization understand that addressing a negative situation at the onset is the

best practice to ward off an extensive conflict. Moreover, they understand that they must show a

genuine care and concern for their employees to ensure positive productivity. When employees

feel that work is more important than they are, this brings about negativity. Managers must

remember that they exist because of the people they manage and without them; the need for

managers is invalid. Making sure that everyone understands his or her role is important to the

success of the organization will aid in the prevention of pessimism in the workplace.

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References

Crocker, J., and Luhtanen, R. 1990. Collective Self-Esteem and Ingroup Bias. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology 58: 323– 338.

Hewstone, M. 1989. Causal Attribution: From Cognitive Processes to Cognitive Beliefs. Oxford:

Blackwell.

Keep in Touch. Special Issue on: Managing Conflict, Valuing Diversity, and Maintaining Open

Communication., online, available from http://www.aviarygroup.ca/newsletter20.html

Korostelina, Karina V.. Social Identity and Conflict. Gordonsville, VA, USA: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2007. p 129. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/devry/Doc?id=10194126&ppg=142

Copyright © 2007. Palgrave Macmillan. All rights reserved.

Oakes, P. 1987. The Salience of Social Categories. In Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-

Categorization Theory, ed. M. A. Turner, P. J. Hogg, S. D. Oakes, S. D. Reicher, and M. S.

Watherell, 117– 134. Oxford: Blackwell.

Topchik, Gary S. 2001. Managing Workplace Negativity. New York: Amacom