Think Positive!

I heard this great report on NPR last week, and while I was listening I said to myself “I’m going to blog about this” and then of course it slipped my mind and here I am a week later, the details a little fuzzy, but here’s the gist of it. (Maybe someone else heard it too and can fill in some more details?)

There’s a company in Germany that had a serious problem with low morale and also with employee turn-over rates. People at the company were always pissing and moaning about things – work, each other, their families, the weather, etc., and as negativity is apt to do, it infected the entire operation. The owner of the company, recognizing the contagious condition of negativity, wrote a new policy in the Employee Manual that stated that there would be absolutely no negativity accepted on company grounds regardless of whether it related to business or not. The only condition under which someone could complain was if the complaint was a lead-in to a proposed solution to improve that situation. Interviewees were thoroughly informed of this policy and scrutinized on their level of negativity. Unnecessary complaining on the job was grounds for immediate dismissal (which they only ended up having to enforce on a couple of people, who they felt in the end, they were better off without anyway).

As it turned out, most all of the employees were very pleased to have this policy initiated, because, although they were all, no doubt, guilty of spreading negativity themselves, they recognized that it was creating an unpleasant work environment. Within weeks the place turned around – employees were pleasant, they were in better moods, they were more productive, and in the end, they stayed at their jobs longer. Not only did this turn out to be an improvement for the company, but also for the employees. Several of the employees were interviewed and said that the new positive attitude had flowed over into their personal lives and they found that they were much happier people in general.

What a great policy! We should all enforce that discipline on ourselves. Of course, we all need a time and place (and person on whom to) vent our frustrations (isn’t that what blogs are for?). But really, if we could just start with one environment and say “I am not going to be negative here” that would train us to begin to think about how often we are negative and the effect that it has on us and the people around us.

Think about it – what good does complaining do? Here it is in a nutshell – if you don’t like a situation, change the situation; if you do not have the power/control to change it, then accept it or get out of the situation. But don’t complain AND accept it – that’s just pathetic!