Imagine the impact of a single discontented employee on an organization's morale and productivity. The ripple effect can be profound, influencing team dynamics, customer relations, and overall business performance. Let's delve into this often overlooked aspect of workplace culture.
How grumbling spreads
Colleagues who complain can blight our days – but they can also bring down entire teams
- Unchecked, disgruntled workers can shape colleagues’ views of the workplace negatively, creating an environment in which even more workers may hate their jobs – including you
- Social contagion: attitudes and behaviors spread among others, who then take on those traits
How to combat the spread of negativity
Consider the context
- A range of effects on teams in which negativity is spreading
- At best, workers’ satisfaction with their role, team or company could dip; at worst, unhappy workers could end up looking for jobs elsewhere in a phenomenon known as turnover contagion
- If people are unhappy in your team, it’s often a much bigger problem than one disgruntled worker
Jim Harter, chief scientist for workplace management and wellbeing at Gallup, who has studied worker engagement across the US during the pandemic
There are three types of workers:
- engaged, who both like the job and perform well
- people who are ‘not engaged’, who may not like the work, but still show up and perform
- and those who are actively disengaged
Bottom Line
Having lots of friends at work doesn’t necessarily insulate you from the spread of negative opinions
- Harter says while workplace friendships can help keep engagement up, they can also be a potential vector for grumbling
- These social connections can either be gripe sessions – people take their discontent and spread it – or people can stay together, and be very innovative
