“The pain train is coming,” shouts Terrible Terry Tate, famous Super Bowl commercial character and designated Office Linebacker who gives out the pain to employees who do not follow office policies.  He works in an office where written employee reprimands have been traded in for midair, bone-crushing football tackles. In one famous scene Tate shouts, “You kill the joe, you make some mo” after he jump tackles the office jerk who just took the last cup of coffee without brewing more for his coworkers.  He finishes off many of his downright physical disciplinary sessions with a loud train sound, “woo woo!”

“When it’s game time, it’s pain time,” says Tate to his coworkers who sometimes try to frantically and hopelessly run from the overpowering athlete suited up in a football uniform and assigned an office cubicle too small for his ego.

These scenes make for hilariously funny television commercials but it’s not funny when the pain train arrives each day in the form of emotional terrorism by brutal managers and coworkers.

Workplace abuse, emotional pain, trauma and psychological terrorism is a big problem in the United States.  According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, 37% of American workers – 54 million people – have been bullied at work.  It is estimated that workplace abuse affects 49% of American workers – 79 million people – when witnesses are included.

Typically the pain arrives in the form of psychological mistreatment, not mid-air tackles at full speed.  In America we have moved beyond physical brutality at work, except for tragic office killings typically perpetrated by victims of bullying behavior who reached the end of their rope and resorted to unjustified murder and violence.

Whether unintentional or cleverly sadistic, the office is full of mistreatment in the form of bullies, jerks or fear-inducing managers who have resorted to psychological violence as a means of control.

That is why the following questions posed in the article, “What’s a Psychologically Healthy Workplace?” can reveal the true psychological health at your workplace.  These questions are very appropriate when considering the safety of your work environment.  The article was published by The New Workplace Institute Blog hosted by David Yamada, NWI founder and professor of law at Suffolk University Law School.

Eight Questions Reveal Psychological Healthy or Unhealthy Workplace

• Is there a sense of zest, “buzz,” and opportunity in the workplace?
• Do employees feel they are valued and treated with respect and dignity?
• Is the organizational culture friendly, inclusive, and supportive?
• Is organizational decision making fair, transparent, and evenhanded?
• Are diversities of all types accepted or merely tolerated?
• Does the organization face or dodge tough questions concerning employee relations?
• Are allegations of mistreatment of employees handled fairly and honestly, even when the alleged wrongdoers are in positions of power?
• Are compensation and reward systems fair and transparent?

According to Yamada, “These inquiries implicate organizational culture and power, which may threaten bad and/or insecure employers.  But if we want to get to the heart of whether a given workplace is psychologically healthy, we must ask these more difficult questions,” states professor Yamada.

How did your company score after truthfully answering these questions?

A small business owner told me the other day he recently met with his staff and jointly worked out an arrangement where employees voluntarily reduced their hours to help account for the recent slow down in business.  Rather than layoff a few employees, it was decided that everyone would share in the pain and work together to solve the company’s financial dilemma.  Rather than sending talent to the exits, this company is poised to quickly respond in full force when the recession lifts. Teamwork was their response to bad news rather than cutting coworkers.

Why is this CEO motivated to approach his company’s economic issues in this manner?  I suspect it is because he is closer to his people. He sincerely cares for them as individuals.  This small business owner has to look employees in the eyes most every day so he is motivated to work out a solution rather than simply pull out a quick fix tool and layoff employees.

Employees of large corporations are not so lucky.  Their CEO’s and leadership teams are typically far removed from the workforce.  A Fortune 500 CEO can simply call their human resource division and command, “layoff five percent of the workforce.”  Workforce reduction plans can be developed and implemented without senior management getting their hands dirty.   Employees are given the tragic news and sent home with little or no interaction from leadership.

This impersonal approach is why you will notice the initial response to economic bad news from medium to large companies is to layoff workers.  The same companies who often state, “our employees are our most important asset” are the same companies kicking people to the curb at the first sign of bad economic news.  To appease shareholders and initiate positive action in the eyes of Wall Street, a layoff is considered the expected and financially responsible quick fix.

The really bad news is that employee layoffs rarely result in long-term cost savings. The data does not support this knee-jerk reaction to reducing expenses.

It is not hard to find bad news. Evidently bad news sells advertising and all the network news programs have signed up for a double portion of negative news coverage. This has created a steady diet of fear and frustration for business leaders who typically stay electronically plugged in most of the day.

From a positive people practices perspective can we logically think through this layoff strategy? Are there not other alternatives to handing out pink slips?  The Wharton School of Business has made these following suggested alternatives to layoffs:

• Voluntary retirement and attrition
• Company-wide salary reductions
• Reduced-salary sabbaticals with benefits
• Reduction of working hours
• Hiring freezes
• Cancellation of company business travel
• Suspension of the 401(k) matching contribution
• Develop and implement employee performance standards

When faced with challenges, leaders and employees will rise to the occasion and deliver viable solutions if an atmosphere of teamwork is propagated rather than an environment where everyone must fend for themselves. Before handing out pink slips, involve the team to determine preventive and innovative alternatives to the dreaded layoff.

The latest research has found Great Workplaces based on positive people practices create a buffer against economic storms. According to research just released by GreatPlaceJobs, the leading job search platform and networking community helping job seekers connect with positions in award-winning organizations, has quantitatively linked Great Workplaces as business powerhouses even during an economic crisis. The GreatPlaceJobs Great Workplace Employment Study shows it makes prudent financial sense for leaders to adopt, model and promote positive people practices in their company.

Our good friend and business affiliate, Asher Adelman, president of GreatPlaceJobs, recently released nationwide the findings of their groundbreaking research. “The study shows that top-ranked Great Workplace employers are much more recession-proof than the average company, having conducted layoffs at a rate of less than half that of companies in general,” said Adelman, founder of the leading job search platform and networking community for Great Workplaces.  Adelman also stated, “The last thing a job seeker wants is to be hired by a company that ends up having to lay off workers a few months later.”

According to the GreatPlaceJobs press release, companies that have been recognized as great workplaces conducted far fewer layoffs than a general sample of companies.  Only 35% of excellent employers conducted layoffs in 2008, as opposed to a shocking rate of 73% of regular companies.  In addition, the revenue growth rate at great workplace companies in Q3 2008 was 27.4% higher than their competitors, and the average stock price of the excellent employers was close to 10% higher at the end of 2008 (compared to the beginning of 2008) than that of their competitors.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

• Layoffs: Fortune’s 100 Biggest Companies had more than double the number of layoffs vs. the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For in America.
• Bankruptcies: Nine bankruptcies or bailouts in the 100 Biggest; none in the 100 Best Companies.
• Revenue growth: Less than 3% at the 100 Biggest Companies; Almost 30% at the 100 Best Companies.
• Share Prices: While both groups’ share prices dropped in 2008, the drop was nearly 10% more in the 100 Biggest.

If you are interested in more information, here is the link to the press release.

What are your thoughts about this latest research?

One time I received a phone call from a recruiter asking me to consider the top HR position of a local company. The recruiter stated the top leader of the company was essentially the devil incarnate, yet they needed the HR executive to create a great workplace.  In other words, the CEO was evil but they wanted a work environment that was employee-friendly.

The recruiter became upset with me when I told her the scenario would never work.  Not with me.  Not with anyone. Not even a miracle worker could turn the culture around as long as the current CEO was in power.

Corporate culture flows down from the top.  It flows down from the CEO, not the HR department.

Have you been challenged with the task of creating a positive corporate culture?  Unless you are the CEO, it is doubtful you will have much luck changing the culture from negative to positive, bad to good, mildly unfriendly to moderately friendly or from downright hell to heaven.

The CEO must be the champion of the company’s culture.  The personality of the organization tends to follow the traits of a strong CEO.  Without his or her strong support, commitment and role modeling in action, it will likely be an uphill battle to rid the company of bad organizational habits supported by the leadership team.

Leadership author and speaker John Maxwell has very wisely stated, “everything rises and falls on leadership.” This certainly holds true for company culture.

If you want to create a high-performance work culture that attracts the best and brightest talent, you must first successfully convince your CEO to lead your corporate culture team.  And it is important to realize a Great Workplace Initiative is not a project with a definite beginning and end.  This will be a never-ending process of molding your company’s personality.  Just like individuals should always be in a continual state of learning and changing, the organizational unit should be changing as well.

When clients call and want us to help them mold their company culture, my response is, “take me to your leader.”