Category Archives: Organizational Behavior
On Gossiping in the Workplace
Can anyone honestly claim to have never gossiped in the workplace… to have never talked about somebody – a coworker or a boss? Well, it’s probably not fair for me to make the hasty generalization that everybody in the workplace gossip. But isn’t that true? Am I really committing that fallacy (hasty generalization) if I argue that nobody in the workplace could come out clean when it comes to gossiping, or am I merely stating a fact?
Gossiping is so prevalent and ubiquitous in the workplace, even in the academe where people, professionals that they are, are supposed to be well-educated and should be conducting themselves within the bounds of professional ethics, couldn’t refrain from wagging their tongues and loosening their lips. And I think that even the so-called servants of God – pastors, priests, and nuns – are not immune to gossiping. Right? I hope I am wrong.
So, if the supposedly educated and cultured people in the academe and the holier-than-thou church people gossip, how much more are the ordinary people in the streets and neighborhoods?
The desire of people to gossip could not be put more eloquently than this way – “People gossip with an appetite that rivals their interest in food and sex.”3 Consider this: “People spend between 65% and 80%-90% of their day-to-day conversation gossiping.”4
Gossip could be defined negatively as “conversation or reports about other people’s private lives that might be unkind, disapproving, or not true.”1 Words synonymous with it include “rumor”, “small talk”, “slander”, “idle talk”, and “backstabbing”.
There exists so bad a perception of gossiping. That is not likely to change, notwithstanding the efforts of some researchers to present a different perspective on the subject.
Gossiping has been stereotyped, and rightly so, as malicious, hurtful, and damaging. It could ruin the organizational climate if it goes unchecked in the workplace. Wagging tongues and loose lips could damage reputation and destroy the relationships between members of an organization. It sows distrust. It could also result in the morale of the subject of gossip getting shattered, affecting his/her work productivity.
Actually, the act of gossiping can either be positive or negative. Gossip is used to convey important information, malign other people, or damage their reputations. It all depends on the motives of the gossipers.
Studies identified four possible motives for passing gossip. They are as follows: to maintain group norms; to enjoy; to inform; and to influence others negatively.2
I classify gossip in the workplace as “work-related” and “personal.” Talking about co-workers and managers is something that is really impossible to avoid, especially when the co-workers conversing are very close friends. It’s difficult not to talk about how other people perform and behave in the organization.
What makes talking about the performance and behavior of the people that surround us in the places where we work negatively is our motive. If there is nothing malicious in our intention, I believe it’s okay. Gossip can also be viewed “as the exchange of information with evaluative content about absent third parties.”2 We can discuss the accomplishments (or the mistakes) of our fellow employees or our managers for the purpose of determining the good things we could emulate from them or to avoid repeating whatever mistakes they may have committed. Even managers also talk about the people they supervise when rating their performance and evaluating policy implementation.
But when the discussions about co-workers (or employees being supervised) are fraught with envy and jealousy, of an obvious attempt to malign them… to strike daggers in their backs… that’s gossiping rearing its ugly head.
We can discuss people in our organization to celebrate their success or tarnish their reputation. We can gossip to praise or make fun of our co-workers and bosses.
Others go as far as talking about other people’s personal lives in the workplace. I could not find any justification for people to talk about the personal lives of their co-workers. The act is simply malicious. Well, if perhaps the intention of the discussion is to figure out how to help a fellow employee wiggle out of a difficult situation, then well and good. But if the motive is either to make fun or demonize the subject of the gossip… to push him/her deeper into the quicksand… for goodness’ sake – STOP!
We should remember this: if the gossiper among your co-workers tells you stories about somebody in your workplace, I bet that that gossiper tells something about you when he/she is talking to someone else.
Perpetrators of gossip should know they could be at risk of being ostracized by their fellow employees for their actions. Gossipers and rumormongers in the workplace are avoided like the plague. Only a fool would associate himself/herself with (or trust) them.
There are different kinds of gossipers, and the best advice I could give is – AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS.
Let me share the most significant part of the conclusion of a study on gossiping that clearly identified the different kinds of gossipers.
“Every person deals with anxieties. These anxieties are normal in an everyday transitory sense. However, when a person becomes fixated on the pursuit of his satisfaction as the only way to resolve his basic anxiety, his “basic anxiety” turns into neurosis. [Does this mean that gossipers are neurotic?] The neurotic trends all point to one or all of the purposes of gossip and, thus, indicate that a person’s propensity to gossip is grounded on his anxieties. The compliant personality is the gossiper who gossips for acceptance, affirmation, and love. This gossip’s purpose focuses on friendship/intimacy and entertainment. The aggressive personality is the individual who is often described as domineering, difficult, and unkind. This is the gossiper who gossips for information, power, and influence. Gossipers under the aggressive personality trend have more tendencies to gossip manipulatively and maliciously. The detached personality is the one who is inclined to gossip for information. Because he is aloof, cold, and indifferent, there is a wider gap between what he knows in the social structure he belongs in and what he does not know; thus, he is predisposed to gossip to acquire information. A person’s anxieties and neurosis are a reflection of his self-concept. The incongruity between a person’s self-image and ideal self yields a mismatch that normally leads to poor self-concept.”5
Well, the best thing to do in the workplace is to not give anybody a reason to talk about you. Perform your duties and responsibilities as prescribed in your job description and avoid acting like an as _ h _ _ e. This is when gossip serves a positive role – ensuring that members of the organization adhere to rules and standards. Unless you want to be the subject of gossip in the workplace, you should not fail to perform the way you ought to and never misbehave.
Anyway, gossiping is here to stay. The gossipers will never go away. They could be seated right next to you, or you could be sharing the same office. You’ll never know if the co-worker you consider the best among your buddies has been whispering to every ear in the organization the secrets you have entrusted to him/her.
So, BEWARE.
And when you think that gossipers in the workplace spread rumors tantamount to defamation of your character, you can seek the protection of the law. You can sue them. Defamation of character is a punishable offense.
__________
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/
- Foster, E. K. (2004). Research on gossip: Taxonomy, methods, and future directions. Review of General Psychology, 8, 78–99.
- Wilson, D. S., Wilczynski, C., Wells, A., & Weiser, L. (2000). Gossip and other aspects of language as group-level adaptations. In C. Heyes & L. Huber (Eds.), The evolution of cognition (pp. 347–365). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Dunbar, R. I. M., Duncan, N. D. C., & Marriott, A. (1997). Human conversationalbehaviour. Human Nature, 8, 231–246.
- Chua, S.V, Uy K.J, (2014). The psychological anatomy of gossip. American Journal of Management 14(3), 64-69
TO BE OR NOT TO BE A “DON QUIXOTE”
Those who assume that the academe is an ideal workplace where everybody thinks, acts, and talks within the bounds of professionalism and fair play are in for a big disappointment. It is a mistake to think that the school is an organization without faults and that those who work there are infallible. Schools are similar to all other institutions in our society. They are not perfect. And the people who work there – as educated as you may think they are – are human beings susceptible to human frailties.
The foregoing are the things I discovered having served in 8 different schools in 2 different countries. If years were feathers on a cap called an academic career, I already have more than 30 of them. Those years I spent in the academe, both as a classroom teacher and as a school administrator, gave me the opportunity to mingle with different kinds of students (and their parents), teaching and non-teaching personnel, administrators, and school owners.
Imagine the wealth of experience I gained during those years supervising teachers and being one of them. Indeed, I experienced a lot, both good and bad. On top of being able to hone my pedagogical skills, I learned how to deal with different personalities, both good and bad. I obtained a lot of insights about school operations and organizational behavior… insights that could not be read in books.
I learned a lot of lessons, very valuable ones. One of the most significant lessons I learned from the past years of my stay in the academe is “Be not a Don Quixote.”
In case you don’t know him, Don Quixote is a fictional character introduced to the world by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes through his epic novel “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.”
For you to know him better, let me (not paraphrase but) give you exactly how sparknotes.com describes the character.
“The novel’s tragicomic hero. Don Quixote’s main quest in life is to revive knight-errantry in a world devoid of chivalric virtues and values. He believes only what he chooses to believe and sees the world very differently from most people. Honest, dignified, proud, and idealistic, he wants to save the world. As intelligent as he is, Don Quixote starts out as an absurd and isolated figure, becoming a pitiable and lovable old man whose strength and wisdom failed him.”
In any workplace, people are classified as employees, middle managers, and employers. Let me call the employees “people downstairs” and the middle managers and employers “people upstairs.” Most of the time, in the schools where I served in the Philippines, I was “upstairs.” Here in South Korea, “downstairs.”
We all dream of belonging to an organization where everybody from downstairs to upstairs coexist peacefully. But out of 10 organizations, how many have fostered a harmonious coexistence among all members? It’s hard to guess.
I know both sides of the fence are seemingly locked in the ancient battle between good and evil. Whatever side is good… and evil… is anybody’s guess. The relationship between employees and those supervising them is analogous to the relationship between the administration party and the opposition in the realm of governance. They are in perpetual disagreement.
Usually, the point of disagreement between subordinates and their superiors (in the academe.. between teachers and school administrators) emanates from the creation of new policies and the corresponding changes they create.
Naturally, people abhor changes. Anything that displaces us from our comfort zone makes us anxious and uncomfortable. Our comfort zones are like territories we will defend at all costs. This is because we are hardwired to resist change. Psychologists found out that the part of the brain called the amygdala interprets change as a threat and prompts the body to release the hormones for fear, fight, or flight.
But some changes are inevitable in organizations, in the business world, or in the academe. We could resist them all we wanted, but they would happen whether we liked it or not. We can howl our disagreement as loud as we can, but that will not prevent changes from happening.
In a related essay that I wrote, I pointed out the following…
“What employees (teachers) need to bear in mind is that employers (school administrators) have to do what they need to do for their business to prosper or simply survive. They must implement changes and tweak policies at a certain point, sometimes when the employees least expect them. Notwithstanding disagreements from downstairs, changes people upstairs want to make will be implemented.
When changes are implemented and policies get tweaked, the employees should not take them personally. Changes in the workplace happen when they are due. It is something inevitable. They need to get used to it. Employees need to be ready to make decisions when they happen. There are available options that they are free to exercise. They may simply embrace the changes and move on. They may accept organizational shake-ups, policy modifications, and what-have-you, then continue working. Either they view the changes as necessary or accept that they could do nothing to prevent them from happening.”
Those who consider such changes unacceptable… those who think they are being taken out of their comfort zones… those who feel being taken advantage of… do have two possible courses of action. They can either resign and continue their quest to find a perfect workplace, or they may stay and do a Don Quixote.
Expat teachers who think they could dissuade their employers who hired them from making the changes the former wants to implement are as delusional as Don Quixote. We could possibly do it in our own countries. But in a country where we are foreigners and work on a contractual basis, it’s a QUIXOTIC endeavor. It’s like “fighting the windmills.”
It frustrates me when I have colleagues who cannot understand that if the management wants to exercise their prerogatives, they could and would, whether the people downstairs want it.
When, in one meeting, a colleague stood and gave a long speech against a policy our university was about to implement, I felt obliged to cordially beg him to stop his litany because whatever he was saying then would all be in vain. Additionally, I told him that he was just unnecessarily prolonging the meeting and wasting my time and that of those uninterested in what he was saying. I also advised him that if he wanted, he should set an appointment with the university officials and tell them about his protestations. Don Quixote did not realize that he could not force anybody to join his cause, especially those who considered changes necessary and inevitable. What he was trying to do at that time was force everybody in the room to listen to his whinges and whines.
The Don Quixotes should not expect their colleagues to look at things and issues in the organization like they do. People in organizations do not have the same perspectives. Even their circumstances are different. People are also driven by sets of motivations that might be entirely different from one another. If the Don Quixotes came to South Korea to fight against what they perceived as injustice, I did not. I just want to do my work and earn a living for my family.
One thing that the “Don Quixotes” should realize is that locking horns with the bosses is a difficult struggle and a lonely battle. Yes, the legality of new policies employers might implement can be contested. But employers are always careful with the decisions they make. Only the ignorant ones would risk getting hauled to court by effecting changes or making moves contrary to established laws and ordinances. Most employers are wise. One of the things employers or businessmen worth their salt do is study the laws and regulations that govern their business endeavors. It’s hard to catch them off-guard in legal matters. They know what buttons to push when “push comes to shove.” In addition, they also consult lawyers to make sure that they face no legal impediments with anything that they do.
There are still Don Quixotes in our rank. It’s annoying to hear them repeatedly complain about the policies and practices of our employers. They have been doing it for as long as I can remember. The funny thing is every time they are presented with a new contract when a new school year begins, they accept it and sign their names on the dotted lines. They agree to work for the employers whose policies and practices they don’t like. Is that what you call “idealism?”
Tomalo con calma Don Quixote.
Surviving The Workplace Jungle
I couldn’t agree more when people describe the workplace as “a jungle.” I have worked for over thirty years at eight different institutions in two countries, so I have ample reason to concur with that description. The similarities between workplace behavior and that of forest animals are uncanny. Even the relationships among people in the workplace resemble how wild animals treat one another. Thus, they say, in the workplace, “only the fittest survive.”
I have been in this jungle called a workplace for more than three decades now. Here I am, still standing and breathing. I managed to hold my own against the beasts I crossed paths with as I searched for greener pastures and overflowing water holes. I experienced being stared down by a lion, bullied by a gorilla, stalked by an eagle, ambushed by a crocodile, bitten by a snake, screamed at by hyenas, and clipped by a crab. Those attacks left me scarred. Nevertheless, I survived – and they did not go unscathed either.
So, how did I prevail?
I simply took a cue from Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection — the idea that organisms whose traits are better suited to their environment are the ones that survive and pass those traits on. Adaptation is the name of the game. But adaptation does not always mean bending. Sometimes it means standing your ground — and the real skill is knowing which one the moment is asking of you. That is what I have been doing, and what you should do if you intend to stay alive and kicking in that jungle where you are now — ADAPT.
If you do not wish to be dinner for the predators, study the workplace where you belong. Know what kind of animals you are dealing with. Study them carefully. You also need to put your survival instincts into full gear.
If you decide to fight the bullies in the organization, be ready to face the consequences. I did not do this often, and I never did it lightly — only when staying quiet would have cost me more than the fight did. I poked bears and twisted the tails of lions to remind them they were not the kings of the forest and lords of the jungle they thought themselves to be. I took the bulls by the horns. I did not chicken out. When I see a snake standing in my way, no matter how big and scary, I turn into a mongoose. Thankfully, I lived to fight another day.
Predators lurk in the shadows. It could be a big cat hiding in the bushes or a mighty bird hovering above. These predators could be the “people upstairs” or somebody from among you “downstairs.”
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that all bosses who succeeded in their business endeavors did it at the expense of the people in the rank and file — like predators slaying their prey and eating them. It could be just a few, or half, or most of them. Nobody knows for sure. But definitely not all. Perhaps most of them (I hope) consider themselves rhinos, and the people they hire are oxpeckers whom they allow to freely land on their backs to feast on the insects pestering them.
The point I wish to drive at when I posited that they (the bosses) are predators is that they are at the top of the food chain and, like it or not, when you agreed to work for them, you entered their territory. They dictate the terms and conditions of your employment. That doesn’t sound good, but it’s the reality in the workplace.
The ones who own or manage the workplace are the alpha males. You need to understand how they think and operate. Better if you could dig deeper and learn what they like and dislike. Stay in the pack if it is not too much for your dignity (or EGO) to adapt to their whims and fancies. These whims and fancies could be the policies that you consider disagreeable. You’ve got to choose whether to follow these policies. For not following, of course, you are not naïve about the consequences. Following the terms and conditions of your employment is not equivalent to flopping onto your back to show that you submit to the alpha males. It is simply like the chimpanzees presenting their back, crouching, bowing, and bobbing to show deference to the alpha in their group.
If not, if you are tired of being an omega, if your ego clashes with that of the alpha, the wisest thing to do is find another pack. You can be a lone wolf. Don’t be employed. Establish your own business and be your own boss. If you succeed and your business grows big, hire people — that is your chance to be the alpha and see if you are better than your former bosses (and hopefully) not worse than them.
Believe me, you cannot afford to take too much bravado and think you are that brave “angry bird” who would post your disagreement online and not expect dire consequences. Whether it’s a tweet, a Facebook rant, or a viral TikTok, your chirps and screams will not go unnoticed. Little birds that might tell them about your misplaced braggadocio are hovering around you. Before you know it, the eagle will swoop down on your nest and tear you apart with its powerful beak. So, learn to hold your horses. Clam up. Just work.
The angry bird isn’t the only one who talks too much and pays for it. There’s also the barnyard crowd — the roosters and the hens — and they have their own way of finding trouble.
Speaking of noise, there’s also the rooster in the office. This one loves the sound of his own crowing — not about deadlines, not about deliverables, but about everything else under the sun: politics, gossip from last night’s game, his side hustle, his opinions on things nobody asked him to opine on. He crows at the top of his lungs while everyone else is trying to work. Sooner or later, somebody upstairs starts wondering if the rooster actually does any work at all, or if he just announces the sunrise every morning and calls it a contribution.
Then there are the hens, clucking away in their corner of the coop. One small workplace hiccup — a missed deadline, a minor disagreement, a memo that rubbed someone the wrong way — and the clucking starts, spreading from cubicle to cubicle until the whole flock is in an uproar over something that could have stayed a whisper. The volume isn’t the problem. It’s that the noise is rarely about the work either.
And here’s the thing about roosters that won’t stop crowing and hens that won’t stop clucking: the farmer (the boss) is always listening. Too much noise, too little work, and eventually somebody decides the coop needs thinning out. That’s how roosters and hens end up as fried chicken — plucked, seasoned, and served, while the quiet ones who kept their heads down and did the work are still out in the yard, unbothered.
More often than not, or almost always, locking horns with the “powers that be” in the workplace is like a deer thinking it could take on a full-grown lion. It’s a losing proposition.
Of course, not all bosses are saints. Some would take advantage of the people they hire in different ways. That you’d discover (hopefully) in time. So, why stay in a watering hole when you discover crocodiles waiting in an ambush under the mud?
What about the predators among you “downstairs.”
Wherever you work, you’ll encounter malevolent individuals. So, be careful. Beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing. These are co-workers who camouflage themselves as your friends but would stab you in the back when they have the chance.
Okay. Let’s talk more about the different animals in the workplace. You must be able to identify them if you want to survive the wild called the workplace.
We have already mentioned the monkey at the top of the tree, the big cats, and the mighty birds. Yeah… including the wolves pretending to be sheep.
Are there other animals you ought to be wary of?
Of course, there are!
Be careful of the buzzing bees called “rumormongers.”
Thinking that they are your friends and therefore could be trusted, you share with them your darkest secrets. Later you’ll discover that the entire workplace is talking about the skeletons you keep in your closet. These people would let the cat out of the bag so easily.
Gossiping is a deadly disease in the workplace. So contagious is it that even people who consider themselves professionals and decent individuals spread personal and work-related gossip. Identify who among your co-workers is fond of tittle-tattling. Don’t say anything negative to them about the work or co-workers, let alone personal matters. Just listen when they talk. Don’t fall into their trap. They will quote you without batting an eyelid. But here is the best way to deal with them — avoid them like the plague.
Among your co-workers, you should also be able to spot the crabs.
Why?
Do you know what happens when you put crabs in a bucket? They’ll try to escape by pulling others back down, effectively preventing any of them from climbing out of the bucket.
That’s the origin of the proverbial “crab mentality.” The philosophy of the malevolent among your co-workers is “if they can’t have a promotion or an incentive, neither can you.” Some people in workplaces just don’t want to see their co-workers succeed. They hate it when somebody climbs the ladder, especially if they’ve been there longer. These snakes would bite you with intrigue and gossip when they see you work harder than they do. They would accuse you of being a leech trying to suck the attention and favor of the people upstairs. Avoid them like mosquitoes and cockroaches, for they could carry a deadly disease.
Don’t let the snakes’ venom get to your nerves and kill your enthusiasm and motivation. Continue to work as hard as your personal values allow. That’s just the reality in the workplace – generally, there are two types of workers – the ants and the termites.
And with whom would you rather be associated – with the ants in the workplace who keep themselves busy working and helping one another to achieve the goals of the organization or with the termites, whose actions and pronouncements, deliberate or otherwise, are damaging – not only to the organization but more so to themselves?
They are basically a negative bunch that should be avoided at all costs. The termites hold a grudge against the people upstairs for one reason or another, and they think that by not doing their jobs the way they ought to and behaving oddly, they could get even. They spin tales about the organization’s current state to demotivate people. Be aware that the termites could also sow dissension among their co-workers.
Nonetheless, the people upstairs are not naïve. They could easily detect termites and have them exterminated.
Watch out too for the hyena – the one who laughs loudest at everyone else’s mistakes. Miss a deadline, fumble a presentation, get called out in a meeting, and the hyena is there, cackling, making sure the room notices your stumble. But corner a hyena the way it corners others, and the laugh disappears fast. The moment the mistake traces back to them, or somebody else outshines them in front of the people upstairs, that same mouth that laughed now screams – scrambling to explain, deflect, or drag someone else down before the blame lands. The hyena was never as confident as it sounded. It only knew how to laugh at others. It never learned how to carry its own weight.
Also watch out for parasites in the workplace.
The parasites seem to have special training in detecting generosity. Once they spot a kind-hearted co-worker who won’t say no when asked for favors, they will have a field day. They would ask you to solve their work-related problems and sometimes even seek personal favors.
So, be careful. Learn to say no when you must, or they will waste your time and resources. They would not hesitate to abuse you.
It’s okay if they return the favor. The problem is the word “reciprocate” is not in their vocabulary.
They also tend to exhibit that selfish attribute in their work. You could neither expect them to go the extra mile for the organization nor to perform their duties and responsibilities as stipulated in their contracts. They care for nothing but their salaries.
Beware, because where we work, roaming are also the “old dogs” – the dinosaurs who refuse to retool and retrain to cope with the demands of what has become a technology-driven workplace.
The infusion of technology in the different aspects of organizational functions is inevitable. They make work more efficient. Organizations that refuse to embrace this new reality are destined to either be eaten up by the competition or buried in the grave of their own insignificance, dug by refusing to change. However, some people in the workplace refuse to be attuned to this emerging reality by subscribing to the notion that “old dogs can’t learn new tricks.”
Now here’s an animal in the jungle you should aspire to be, not fear – the chameleon.
The chameleon has no claws to speak of, no venom, no roar. Its survival skill is subtler and, frankly, smarter: it reads the branch it’s sitting on and changes color to match it, without becoming a different creature underneath. That’s the part people miss when they hear the word ADAPT and think it means surrender. It doesn’t. It means knowing when to display your true colors boldly and when to keep them muted until the moment is right. The chameleon isn’t the fiercest animal in the jungle, and it doesn’t need to be – it survives because it’s smart enough never to walk into a fight it wasn’t built to win. Blending in is not surrender. It is the same choice that sometimes tells you to fight – only pointed in the other direction. Learn to be that watchful. Read the room before you speak. Read the branch before you land on it. That is how you outlast the lions.
The relationship between the people and the organization should be symbiotic for the workplace to prosper.
Let’s consider the relationship between the clownfish and the sea anemone. It’s a perfect example of a symbiotic mutualistic relationship. While the clownfish’s fecal matter serves as a nutrient source for the sea anemone, the sea anemone protects the clownfish from predators.
You can choose between becoming a parasite or a clownfish.
The workplace gives you a venue for professional growth and a source of livelihood. You need to keep it afloat. Your organization needs your help to succeed and continue to exist. You may have disagreements with the people upstairs, but you must remember that commitment to your job and organization differs from commitment to your employers.
Lastly, to survive in the forest, you must clearly determine where you rank in the food chain. Identify the different kinds of animals there. And most importantly – don’t stand in the path of your predators.
It’s as simple as knowing your designated place in the organization, being mindful of your words and actions, and being careful with how you deal with everyone. And remember that the most foolish thing to do is to offend your employers and think that there’ll be no consequences. Pray that they are rhinos and not king cobras who bite when provoked.
In the end, this jungle does not ask you to be purely meek or purely fierce. It asks you to know, moment to moment, which one keeps you standing – and to have the nerve to be either one when it’s called for.
You have to study the workplace culture. Again… ADAPT. There’s a line about survival that gets attributed to Charles Darwin, though historians who’ve gone looking for it in his actual writing have never found it there – it seems to have been coined decades later by a business professor paraphrasing Darwinian ideas: “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Misattributed or not, the wisdom in it still holds – for the chameleon, and for you.
If you can’t adapt, feel disrespected and gravely offended, or think you are no longer growing professionally – what are you waiting for? It’s time to migrate to another forest. And if you think there are better animals in other forests, good luck!
Is The Workplace a Jungle?
I couldn’t agree more whenever people describe the workplace as “a jungle.” I have been working long enough – thirty years in eight different institutions in two countries – that I could cite a thousand or two reasons why I consider that description accurate in the metaphorical sense. There are uncanny similarities in the behavior of people inhabiting the working environment and the animals in the forest. Even the patterns of relationships between people in the field of work resemble the way the living creatures in the wild treat each other. Thus, they say, in the workplace “only the fittest survive.”
I have been in this jungle called workplace for three decades now. Here I am, still standing and breathing. I managed to hold my own against the different animals I cross paths with as I searched for greener pastures and overflowing water holes. I experienced being stared down by a lion, stalked by an eagle, ambushed by a crocodile, bitten by a snake, clipped by a crab, and stung by a bee. Attacks that left me scarred. Nevertheless, I survived – still alive.
How did I do it? How did I live to tell the tale?
I simply took a cue from Charles Darwin who theorized that “species with useful adaptations to the environment are more likely to survive.” Adaptation is the name of the game. That exactly is what I have been doing (and what you should also be doing if you intend to stay alive and sane in your workplace) – ADAPT.
If you wish not to be dinner for the predators it would behoove you to study carefully the environment of the workplace where you belong. Know what kind of animals you are dealing with. Study them carefully. You also need to put your survival instincts into full gear.
Predators lurk in the shadows. It could be a big cat hiding in the bushes or a mighty bird hovering above. These predators could the “people upstairs” or somebody from among you “downstairs.”
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that all bosses who succeeded in their business endeavors did it at the expense of the people in the rank and file – like predators slaying their preys and eat them. It could be just a few, or half, or most of them. Nobody knows for sure. But definitely not all. Perhaps a majority of them (I hope) consider themselves rhinos and the people they hire oxpeckers whom they allow to freely land on their backs to feast on the insects pestering them.
The point I wish to drive at when I posited that they (the bosses) are predators is that they are at the top of the food chain and like it or not, when you agreed to work for them, you entered their territory. They dictate the terms and conditions of your employment. That doesn’t sound good but it’s the reality in the workplace.
The ones who own or manage the workplace are the alpha males. You need to have a full understanding of how they think and operate. Better if you could dig deeper and try to know what they like and dislike. If it is not too much for your dignity (or should we say EGO) to adapt to their whims and fancies then stay in the pack. These whims and fancies could be the policies that you consider disagreeable. You’ve got to make a choice whether to follow these policies or not. For not following, of course you are not naïve not to understand that there are consequences. Following the terms and conditions of your employment is not equivalent to flopping onto your back to show that you submit to the alpha males. It is simply like the chimpanzees presenting their backs, crouching, bowing and bobbing in order to show deference to the alpha in their group.
If not, if you are tired of being an omega, if your ego clashes with that of the alpha, the wisest thing to do is leave. Find another pack, or better still, be a lone wolf. Don’t be employed. Establish your own business and be your own boss. If you succeed and your business grows big, hire people. That is your chance to be the alpha and see for yourself if you are a better one than your former bosses or… worse than them.
Believe me, you cannot afford to take too much bravado and think you are that brave “angry bird” who would tweet your disagreement and not expect dire consequences. Your chirps will not go unheard and before you know it the eagle will swoop down on your nest and tear you apart with its powerful beaks.
More often than not, or almost always, that locking horns with the “powers that be” in the workplace is like a deer thinking it could take on a full-gown lion. It’s a losing proposition.
Of course not all bosses are saints. Some of them would take advantage of the people they hire in different ways. That you’d discover (hopefully) in time. So, why stay on a watering hole when you know that there are crocodiles under the mud waiting in ambush? Move out. You’re not a tree! You have limbs. Run, walk or crawl from out of there.
What about the predators among you “downstairs”.
Wherever you work, you’ll encounter malevolent individuals. So, be careful. Beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing. These are co-workers who camouflage themselves as your friends but would stab you in the back when they have the chance.
Okay. Let’s talk more about the different animals in the workplace. You’ve got to be able to identify them if you really want to survive the wild called the workplace.
We have already mentioned about the big cats and the mighty birds. Yeah, including the wolves pretending to be sheep.
Are there other animals you ought to be wary of?
Yes, there are!
Watch out for them. Better watch them like a hawk.
Be careful of the buzzing bees called the rumormongers.
Thinking that they are your friends and therefore could be trusted, you share with them your darkest secrets. Letting the cat out of the bag is the biggest mistake you commit with this type of animals. Later you’ll just discover that the entire workplace is talking about the skeletons you’ve tried so hard to keep in your closet for so long.
Gossiping is a deadly disease in the workplace. It kills reputation and trust. It ruins relationships and careers. So widespread it is that even the people who consider themselves as professionals and who think of themselves as decent individuals spread gossips – both personal and work-related – unmindful of the pain and shame their traitorous act might inflict on their victims.
Identify who among your co-workers are fond of tittle-tattling. Don’t say anything negative to them about the work, co-workers, much less personal matters. Just listen when they talk. Don’t fall into their trap. They will quote you without batting an eyelid. But here is the best way to deal with them – avoid them like the plague. They sometimes appear as if they wouldn’t hurt a fly. That’s their facade. The truth is – they are dogs that eat dogs.
Among your co-workers, you should also be able to spot the crabs.
Why?
Do you know what happens when you put crabs in a bucket? They’ll try to escape by pulling back down others effectively preventing anyone of them from climbing out of the bucket.
That’s the origin of the proverbial “crab mentality.” The philosophy of the malevolent among your co-workers is “if they can’t have a promotion or an incentive, neither can you.” Some people in workplaces just don’t want to see their co-workers succeeding. They so hate it when somebody climbs up the ladder especially if they’ve been there longer. These are the snakes who would bite you with intrigues and gossips when they see you work harder than they do. They would accuse you of being a leech trying to suck the attention and favor of the people upstairs.
Don’t allow the venom of the snakes get through your nerves. Let them not succeed in getting your goat. Continue to work as hard as your personal values would allow you. Don’t be pig-headed like them.
That’s just the reality in the workplace – that generally there are two types of workers – the ants and the termites.
And with who would you rather be associated – with the ants in the workplace who keep themselves busy working and helping one another in order to achieve the goals of the organization or with the termites, whose actions and pronouncements, deliberate or otherwise, are damaging – not only to the organization but more so to themselves?
They are basically a negative bunch that should be avoided at all cost. The termites hold a grudge against the people upstairs for one reason or another and they think that by not doing their jobs the way they ought to and by behaving oddly, they could get even. They spin tales about the current state of the organization basically for the purpose of demotivating people. Be aware that the termites could also sow dissension among their co-workers.
Nonetheless, the people upstairs are not naïve. They could easily detect the existence of termites and they get them exterminated.
Watch out also for the parasites in the workplace.
The parasites seem to have special training in detecting generosity. Once they have spotted a kind-hearted co-worker who wouldn’t say no when asked for favors then they will have a field day. They would ask you to solve their work-related problems and sometimes even seek personal favors.
So, be careful. Learn to say no when you have to or else they would eat up your time and resources. They won’t hesitate to abuse you.
It’s okay if they return the favor. The problem is the word “reciprocate” is not in their vocabulary.
They also tend to exhibit that selfish attribute in their work. You could neither expect them to walk an extra mile for the organization nor perform their duties and responsibilities as stipulated in their contracts. They care for nothing but their salaries.
For the workplace to prosper, the relationship between the people and the organization should be symbiotic.
Let’s consider the relationship between the clownfish and the sea anemone. It’s a perfect example of a symbiotic mutualistic relationship. While the fecal matter from the clownfish serve as nutrients for the sea anemone, the latter provide the former with protection from its predators.
You can choose between becoming a parasite or a clownfish.
The workplace gives you a venue for professional growth and a source of livelihood. You need to keep it afloat. Your organization needs your help for it to succeed and continue existence. You may have disagreements with the people upstairs but you need to bear in mind that commitment to job and organization is different from commitment to your employers.
Lastly, in order to survive in the forest, you need to clearly determine where you rank in the food chain. Identify the different kinds of animals there. And most importantly – don’t stand in the path of your predators.
It’s as simple as knowing your designated place in the organization, being mindful of your words and actions, and being careful with how you deal with everyone. And remember that the most foolish thing to do is to offend your employers.
You have to study the culture of the workplace. Again… ADAPT. Remember what Charles Darwin said, “It’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.
If you can’t adapt, if you feel so disrespected and gravely offended, if you think you are no longer growing professionally – what are you waiting for? It’s time to migrate to another forest.
If you think that your current workplace is (as described by Simon Sinek) “like a tree full of monkeys where everyone at the top, looking down, sees only smiles but everyone at the bottom, looking up, sees only asses” then you should leave as soon as possible. Unless you could stomach looking at the same “asses” everyday when you go to work.
And when you’re finally out and begin looking for a new workplace, don’t ever expect that you’ll find a perfect workplace. That’s a wild goose chase. You’ll never find one. You’ll see the same animals.
M.A.D. LIGAYA
M.A.D. L I G A Y A 