By Suzie Doscher
Being subjected to passive aggressive behaviour from anybody, could be in a shop, at home, in school or at work can be not only confusing, but also hurtful and uncomfortable. Frequently passive-aggressive behaviour and manner of speaking come from someone who has not learned how to express emotions, let alone negative ones. Instead of being in touch with their feelings, they redirect these emotions in a passive-aggressive manner. Sometimes the person is not even aware of this. Obviously this is a generalization and in no way should be thought of as the truth for everybody who behaves passive-aggressively. Sometimes people are just having a bad day and letting it out with inconsiderate and disrespectful manners. Common characteristics of passive-aggressive people:
Many cultures teach from a young age to suppress negative feelings, some even encourage to suppress all feelings and hide behind extreme politeness! Think of the famous 'stiff upper lip.' Not allowing your feelings to surface, as well as not expressing emotions. can lead to passive-aggressive behaviour. We are emotional beings -- we all have emotions, even if we do not always like what we are feeling. Here are some helpful tips to deal with passive-aggressive people:
Reasons for passive aggressiveness are complex and deep-seated. It is not your responsibility to help or change the person. Focus on what you can influence -- your reaction. If you have no choice but to interact on a regular basis with the person, attempt to put a stop to potentially damaging patterns as soon as possible. Tolerating passive-aggressive behaviour will only encourage it to continue. Negative emotions leading to passive-aggressive behaviour are in fact the ones offering an opportunity to grow and change. If you find yourself behaving a little passive- aggressive yourself, see it as an opportunity to grow. This is a time when you can engage a life coach, a good book or the wisdom of a close friend. In conclusion, although passive-aggressive people are not pleasant to deal with, there are actions you can take to not allow this behaviour to drain you.
0 Comments
by Mark C. Crowley Speaker, consultant and author, Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century Is it possible that communications tools like Skype, Zoom.us and Google Hangouts will have the effect of making communal office spaces obsolete? Is the day coming when organizations will redeploy workers to home offices - where they’ll have no commute, and the freedom to work all day in play clothes? A few years ago, researchers at iconic furniture maker, Herman Miller, began a deep-dive into the future of the global workplace driven by the desire to answer questions like these. Clearly, technology already makes it possible for many people to work away from conventional offices. The question is whether that’s ultimately the best thing for workers, not to mention the companies that employ them. As part of the study, a team reviewed academic literature on psychology, anthropology, sociology and behavioral sciences - looking as far back as the B.C. era when human beings first began documenting ideas about work. The research conclusions were then presented at the Dive! Innovation Conference held this summer in Rennes, France, which I attended. The following is a summary of the firm’s most compelling discoveries as shared by Mark Catchlove, Herman Miller’s Director of Knowledge and Insight. His overriding conclusion is that many of us will indeed end up working remotely, just not all the time.
A consistent finding from over a half-century of the company’s research is that human beings are inherently diverse. But what emerges from the new study is an understanding that across all cultures, genders, generations and organizations, people have basic needs in their experience of work that must be met in order for them to thrive and be optimally productive. While an organization’s leadership practices and culture play essential roles in determining whether these needs are supported, where and how people work is also a key contributor:
But Catchlove says too much alone time backfires. New research by Gretchen Spreitzer at the University of Michigan shows that continual isolation inevitably makes people feel lonely and “socially adrift.” “The human need for belonging is so profound that we must always provide employees with a secure base,” Catchlove says. “Most companies will continue to have offices just so people can routinely reconnect and collaborate with co-workers.” But Herman Miller also advises that traditional workplaces be given an extreme makeover. Says Catchlove, “people must be given greater choice on where they work including more than one option within their own office. Less and less, you won’t see people sitting in the same place for eight hours as firms provide workers with a collection of settings in which to move around.” Ironically, researchers found that a significant number of people don’t have adequate space to work from home. So while co-working spaces will become more prevalent in the future, it will always be expected that employees return to the nest for consistent rejuvenation.
To Holly Honig, who led Herman Miller’s research team, these massive investments are simply a reflection of highly informed leadership. “Businesses today face unprecedented challenges recognizing the speed of change, disruptive technologies and the need for sustainable growth. At the same time, a few enlightened organizations know what we do - that people create ideas and drive their execution. So when workers are highly engaged - when those six human needs are answered - their firms are propelled into prosperity.”
“When we look at company P & L’s,” says Catchlove, “seventy percent of their investment is already in people. Recruitment is expensive. Training is expensive. So leaders are slowly being persuaded that looking out for their workers is really smart business. Our argument to company leaders is that the wisest thing they can do is to love and care for their biggest investment by far.” Herman Miller’s study also confirmed what most of us already know intuitively: that workplace design and furnishings have an enormous impact on the human spirit and contribute greatly to how people feel in their jobs. “We know that people are looking at different lenses at their total experience of work,” says Catchlove, “and their physical environment is a big piece of that.” Struggling with the environment in your work place -
|
Self-Help Book / Personal Development
|