A nice work environment is a gateway to increasing and consolidating employees’ productivity, satisfaction, and motivation in an organization. Complicated situations may be predictable in work environments involving conflicting, irresponsible, negative, and disrespectful bosses, colleagues, or subordinates.
When companies recruit people, it’s to be expected that they have a wide range of personalities, values, and points of view. That’s why Human Resources needs to keep in mind all the aspects of the organizational environment, understanding how important leaders are, as they can positively or negatively impact this work environment.
Negativity is contagious, and a worker who is constantly pessimistic can infect others, causing mistrust, conflict, lack of commitment, and poor participation in projects. People’s thoughts are vulnerable and they can be influenced by someone else, changing the way they perceive and interpret their daily difficulties. A negative person does not necessarily make blatantly negative comments, but they can show their way of thinking in their attitudes.
Although it is difficult to maintain a cheerful attitude every moment, constant negativity at work can have serious consequences. It can affect health, career, and job satisfaction, as well as the organization’s success.
A bad work environment turns into a vicious circle of negativity.
Every negative situation has a consequence. As such, having a bad work environment can reproduce a chain of events that turn the negative into a vicious circle.
Some examples of those situations that can lead to workplace negativity are:
- Friction between teammates, due to the lack of feeling of belonging to a team.
- Lack of communication and feedback, leading employees to feel undervalued.
- Poor payments, resulting in an imbalance between economic wages and emotional matters.
All of these things can lead to work stress, which can trigger diseases in workers such as depression, anxiety, and digestive problems, among others. This results negatively on the company, which also has to address the occupational health of its workers and the costs associated with absenteeism and labor turnover.
Why are people negative at work?
Negativity at work often comes in two forms: people who are negative all the time and people who are going through a hard time.
Persistently negative people are the colleagues who constantly complain about their job. They may not like their position, their boss, or the company, which makes it difficult to maintain a positive outlook in their work life. They may also have issues outside of work that cause negativity while at the office.
A leader promotes a motivating environment that allows employees to grow. Additionally, a leader helps them to develop themselves, reach job flexibility, a sense of belonging, recognition, and communication. Which in sum is the key to enhancing the environment. Unlike the case then the opposite happens: Poor management means that teams don’t work with enthusiasm or willingness to achieve their goals. This may affect their performance and have negative repercussions for the company.
What happens when we’re exposed to negativity?
Sometimes negative people face demanding personal situations or stressful work and it may cause negativity for a brief time. These co-workers are usually positive people, but something specific triggers negative behavior in the short term.
Dealing with these two types of negativity requires different approaches. Consider what type of person you are interacting with before you begin to respond to their negative behavior.
What’s the influence of leaders?
The leader’s behavior influences their followers. A leader is one of the main people responsible for their followers’ success or failure. They’re the one who handles the responsibility for helping to meet organizational objectives. In other words, a leader has the power over the progress of the organization, since they all need someone to drive this progress.
Leaders need to understand the close relationship between performance, motivation, and the work environment. That’s the key to being effective and ensuring that workers have a good perception of their work environment
A good or bad environment influences the motivation of the employees who form part of it. This in turn contributes to reaching or failing to achieve group objectives, and it also has an impact on the overall effectiveness and productivity of the team.
How to revert the negative environment
1. Know the employees’ opinions firsthand.
Apply a survey based on psychometric indicators. Surveys can explore workers’ appreciation of the organizational environment and their engagement levels.
The most useful way to determine the state of the work environment is by measuring it through surveys applied to each worker. There, the staff will be able to test the main factors that set up the organizational environment.
2. Generate a strategy to manage this issue.
In this evaluation, ideas can emerge such as incorporating a code of ethics into organizational culture.
3. Promote respect and kindness.
These two values are vital in the workplace, but how can you promote them? We go over the importance of kindness and how to implement it in our article Why Workplace Kindness Matters. When it comes to respect, your time will need to be guided by the code of ethics that you established.
4. Provide constant feedback.
You need to care for each worker equally and fairly. It is also important to have a system that recognizes their achievements, to foster a positive workplace environment that helps them look at things on the bright side.
We all like to feel like part of a group and know that our opinion is being taken into account. Giving continuous feedback to employees will guide them towards the desired results. This will be a great opportunity to have valuable conversations that will help you strengthen your relationship and improve your performance. It will also project a commitment to work as well as develop a sense of belonging to the organizational culture.
Be the leader of the future
Being a good leader has never been so important. Leaders and managers have a fundamental role in improving the work environment. Therefore, they are decisive in the result of the work environment. Taking into account: decisions, employees’ profiles, and authenticity in the treatment of all parties.
Remember that the work environment is constantly changing. Organizations that do not care about carrying out actions to promote a good climate run the risk of hindering the professional development of their collaborators and end up becoming those companies that lose their reason for being.
A bad work environment can have more factors that can cause it. However, one of the best ways to prevent it is with a Suggestion Box that allows employees to provide feedback and present complaints when it’s necessary.
It is not easy to predict when a company is in danger as a result of a bad organizational environment. Yet now that you know these factors that affect the work environment, you can make a timely diagnosis. Look at your organization and try to come up with a starting point where everyone can be motivated, feel recognized, have communication, and can be proactive. It is clear that the better the work environment, the higher productivity.
