The gift of a great workplace is, in fact, a rare gift. Very few people find themselves fortunate to work in a great work environment where employees are treated with trust, dignity and respect. At a time in history when our work should be challenging, rewarding and financially beneficial, most employees are faced with turf battles, brutal office politics, unethical decision-making and management by fear.

That is why The People Group Team is solidly focused on the creation of great workplaces. Research has proven, and we have observed, that positive people practices (P3) transform company cultures. As we approached the Christmas Season, it was very easy to decide what message to include on our Christmas cards:

The gift of love,

The gift of peace,

The gift of happiness,

The gift of a great workplace.

May all these be yours at Christmas and the New Year to come.

The gift of a great workplace also brings a number of other benefits, especially the gift of financial success.  Companies with great workplaces outperform their competition and experience enormous financial success.  These same companies are more likely to volunteer and invest in their community, making our society a better place to live.

To all our clients and their employees, business associates, vendors, business partners and providers, we wish all of you the absolute best as you celebrate with your employees and families during this holiday season.  This truly is a wonderful time of year. We are trying to bottle the spirit of this season and distribute it throughout the year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE PEOPLE GROUP TEAM!

Brittany Hulsizer, Consultant, Branding & Corporate Communications

Lori McNulty, Consultant, Administration

Kurt Webber, Consultant, Company Culture

Kevin Kennemer, Sr. Consultant, Founder & Partner

If you are a business leader working to create a great workplace built on trust and respect, the typical company grapevine and rumor mill can work against your best efforts.  The people who tend to run these unofficial underground communication systems may not always be healthy for your organization.  These seemingly untraceable messages can work against your great workplace strategy.  In other words, the water cooler can be a toxic meeting place.

Not everyone will join the great workplace movement with your leadership team, even though they are proven to be the most financially successful, innovative, creative and long-term successful organizations.  Not everyone wants to play nice.  And there are those who prefer to create turmoil and misery in the workplace.  Toxic employees and managers can feed the unofficial communication pipeline with questionable information merely to stir up controversy.

According to grapevine experts, the majority of water cooler talk doesn’t really happen at the water cooler any more.  Employee chatter, rumors, gossip and grapevine banter transpires at company kitchens and breakrooms across America.  Although a certain amount of communication through the grapevine is to be expected – and can be utilized as a positive tool by leadership – the vine can cross the line and hurt innocent people inside or outside your organization.

When leaders work to create a great work environment, it is a good idea to squelch rumors fairly quickly to prevent people from getting hurt.  Observing the grapevine participants allows leaders to determine who may or may not be a good cultural fit.

In companies where there is little communication coming down from the top, grapevine traffic will increase to counterbalance the information void.  The problem occurs when the information being distributed through the vine is purely speculative, untrue or aimed at individuals that could be devastating.  Leaders need to be careful not to be held hostage by the gatekeepers, gossips, rumormongers and snitches that can overrun a company if they are not properly dealt with, according to Paul Falcone, a human resource executive and best-selling author of several human resource books.  He defines the different types of grapevine participants, as follows:

• Gossips: These folks typically initiate unfounded rumors.  They obtain power from having the “scoop.”
• Rumormongers: Perpetuate rumors even if they are completely untrue, lack a foundation in truth or could damage the reputation of a coworker.
• Snitches: This role is fairly self-explanatory.  Snitches derive their power from sharing juicy information that is usually hurtful to others.  Playing the role of a tattletale is just plain wrong.

When someone volunteers a juicy piece of information while you make your morning or afternoon run to the break room, do you choose to participate, even if the information could be hurtful or degrading to a fellow employee? It is best to live by higher standards and refuse to listen to or perpetuate company gossip.  Creating a great workplace requires a certain amount of discipline.

Image Credit: A.V. Club

When the day is sunny, cloudless, warm and bright, I am at my best.  In fact, most people I know prefer the light and enjoy being outdoors when the sun is shining bright. Even your indoor time is better because you know the outdoors are so beautiful.  It makes you want to open the windows and let that good stuff inside.

I have found the same holds true in the workplace.  It is good to keep things well lighted.   Bad behavior tends to occur during the cover of darkness.  Not only is it a good idea to light your actual office or work area, it is also a best people practice to light up your company culture. The company culture needs a good dose of light to keep things headed in the right direction because negative and toxic actions most likely happen in darkness.  In the famous Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the worst behavior of the prison guards occurred during the nighttime when fewer people were around to watch them beat and torment their prisoners.

Toxic managers, office jerks and bullies only survive because they are allowed to spread their toxic venom under the cover of darkness. This darkness comes in the form of leaders looking the other way, human resource professionals siding with inhumane treatment of employees, posting code of conduct policies that are not followed by leadership, Alpha Males who are allowed to create mobs to terrorize individual targets in the organization, coworkers who don’t want to get involved, CEO’s who prefer to keep high-performing jerks regardless of the body count, or the mere fact not one leader is brave enough to step forward and call out the toxic individual’s behavior.  Firing an employee should not be an easy or enjoyable process but sometimes it is needed to save the organization.

Is there sufficient light in your organization? Do you have the official policies but subversive work is conducted behind the scenes in the dark of night?  Is there open communication up and down the organization? Start a revolution of light. Walk into the light and bring some people with you.

Image: iStockPhoto

QuikTrip, a convenience store enterprise headquartered in Tulsa, Okla., has demonstrated how to succeed through Positive People Practices. One of those is the practice of showing respect to their employees 24/7.

You will find no bigger QuikTrip fan than me. I use their gasoline almost exclusively for my cars, and our family frequents their stores because they are clean and well-stocked with a great selection of convenient items.  Look at my bank statement and you will see the evidence of my QuikTrip addiction.  I am hooked on their Diet Coke with Vanilla.  I love their French vanilla cappuccino. When my wife is not around I will buy a hot dog.  In fact, every time I leave town I stop by QuikTrip and buy a drink before I leave. But the biggest reason I am a QuikTrip fan is because their employees are friendly. They show respect to their customers.

Every time you walk into one of their stores an employee will welcome and acknowledge you.  At a time in America when many companies have forgotten about customer service, friendliness and showing respect, QuikTrip stands way above the pack in the convenience store industry, or most any industry. If you don’t believe me, visit a city that does not have a QuikTrip presence.  In fact, the City of Tulsa should advertise QuikTrip as a selling point for living here.

Showing respect to customers has to be one of their key ingredients to success. More importantly, I will venture to guess their employees are first shown tremendous respect by their leaders.  Typically, employees model the behavior they see in their leaders.  The dictionary defines respect as giving particular attention to something or someone worthy of high regard.  I suspect their employees treat me well when I walk through those swinging glass doors, because they are first treated in high regard by the company.

This is amazing when you consider the culture we live in today. Cable television provides an onslaught of news programs where people are arguing and yelling at each other. There is an endless lineup of reality shows where cut-throat antics are utilized to gain a competitive advantage.  Drivers on American roadways are even becoming more aggressive, less forgiving and impatient.  The workplace is becoming more dangerous and disrespectful where employees are seen as expendable assets rather than people with feelings and families.

So I salute QuikTrip for creating an atmosphere of respect for employees, which ultimately trickles down the line to their loyal and happy customers, like myself.  Before the customer enjoys respect the employee must first benefit from a culture of respect.

Note: QuikTrip is currently rated by Fortune Magazine as the 27th Best Company to Work For in America.

Although it has been tough for most companies in this economic recession, a new study reports Great Workplaces have performed better, with revenue and stock prices to the avoidance of the dreaded layoff and its terrible consequences. Our good friend Asher Adelman, Founder of GreatPlaceJobs.com, said their recent study “shows that even though top-ranked employers have suffered through the current recession, their revenue levels and stock prices are still in better shape than their competitors.” He also stated “the general sample of companies laid off employees almost twice as often as the excellent employers.  A shocking 86% of the Fortune 100 largest companies have laid off workers since the recession started in early 2008,” stated Adelman.

Let’s revisit the proven reasons Great Workplaces survive in a rough economy, which I shared with you last September.

The people inside Great Workplaces make the difference because their company truly cares for them by creating a sustainable, flourishing culture.  As a result, a majority of their energized employees are engaged and running on all cylinders. The benefits of creating a Great Workplace are numerous.  As chairman of the board, CEO, business owner or start-up entrepreneur, the proven benefits of building a Great Workplace will likely make your company a powerful force even in the most difficult of times.  Why? The benefits of creating a Great Workplace have been researched and proven by the Great Place to Work Institute:

• Higher productivity
• Higher profitability
• Better customer satisfaction
• Lower staff turnover rates
• Greater number of applicants for open positions
• Attraction of the best and brightest talent
• Less resistance to change
• Lower health care costs
• Lower workers’ compensation costs
• Lower absenteeism rates
• Lower presenteeism rates
• Higher levels of cooperation
• Higher quality products and services
• Increased innovation and risk taking
• Higher returns to stockholders

When you build a winning team with a great work environment, employees will take care of business during both good and bad times. It is a winning formula for building a long-term, growing and profitable organization.

So how can you better insure your company against the doom and gloom of the latest economic recession? Become a Great Workplace. You will not only attract the top talent your industry has to offer, but you will also keep that talent by developing a positive work environment designed for the success of your employees.

Go here to read the rest of the GreatPlaceJobs employment study on why Great Workplaces are outperforming their competitors in the recession.

To get more information, or to develop strategies for turning your company into a Great Workplace, contact Kevin Kennemer with The People Group at 888.797.9992 Ext 1, or by e-mailing kevin@thepeoplegroupllc.com.

When I get up in the morning, my goal for The People Group is to help organizations create work cultures where employees feel safe to be productive, innovative, healthy and profitable. The good news: there is no lack of potential clients who need help. The bad news: our nation is filled with company cultures mired in political infighting with out-of-control, jerk bosses and uncivilized behavior where employees leave the office each day anxious, depressed and beaten down.

There is no question in my mind why the family unit is in danger, and the health of the American worker is likely at its worst in recent history.

Why am I so passionate about the creation of great workplaces?  Why do I consistently admonish business owners and executives to treat employees with trust and respect? It is related to my unfortunate encounter with a sadistic, cruel and bully boss who routinely yelled, screamed, cursed and threw temper tantrums. When he didn’t get his way, or I expressed opinions that upset his tiny world view, he would go ballistic. He was like an evil two-year-old baby inside a fifty-year-old body.

This workplace psychopath was also known for heavy consumption of alcohol, and would regularly drunk dial employees at home to ferociously complain about their latest manufactured failure.

Unfortunately, without knowledge and information about workplace bully behavior, I allowed the son of Satan to affect me personally, which ultimately resulted in detrimental costs to my health. At the time, I didn’t realize targets of bullies are typically bright, successful and well-respected individuals.  I thought there must have been something wrong with me to be treated in this manner. Sadness, darkness and pain eventually took over my life and caused unbelievable torture.  The mental anguish eventually led to a number of physical conditions that were costly to me personally and financially.

So, back to my question of why I am so passionate about the topic of work culture and creating great workplaces.  No one should be subjected to the hurt and shame of a workplace psychopath. I do not want anyone to experience what I experienced.  Workplace bullies should not be allowed to continue their goal of destroying their subordinates and coworkers.  Rather than focusing on organizational success, bullies focus on personal survival by torturing their fellow employees.  This reasoning only makes sense if you are a psychopath.

How do you know a bully boss has crossed the line?  How do you determine the jerk is simply having a bad day or is a certified bully?

The following list of injurious behaviors, called “The Dirty Dozen” and published by the McKinsey Quarterly, will help you identify enemies in your midst.

The Dirty Dozen

1. Personal insults
2. Invading coworker’s personal territory
3. Uninvited physical contact
4. Threats and intimidation, verbal and nonverbal
5. Sarcastic jokes and teasing used as insult delivery systems
6. Withering e-mails
7. Status slaps intended to humiliate victims
8. Public shaming or status degradation rituals
9. Rude interruptions
10. Two-faced attacks
11. Dirty looks
12. Treating people as if they were invisible

How does an employee prevent leaving one toxic work environment only to take a position inside another toxic culture?  There was an interesting column recently in J.T. & Dale’s Talk Jobs column that addressed this very issue.  The question was asked how to avoid taking a job in a toxic work environment.

The wise words of wisdom from the authors was this: “Rather than look for a different industry, your best hope is to find an organization whose culture is aligned with yours.”

They further stated, “the best way to do that is to interview an employer as much as he or she interviews you.”

There are good leaders out there who want to create rewarding work environments and that don’t send employees home at night confused, deflated, depressed and anxious.  Just as good employers perform their due diligence on new employees, those in the job market need to decide what is important to them.  What are your work environment non-negotiables?  Develop some questions around those requirements to ask your potential boss.

Below are a few questions to consider asking at your next interview?

• Are employees allowed to take risks and develop innovative solutions on the job? If yes, what is a recent example of employee-led risk taking or innovation?
• What happens to a good employee who makes an honest mistake?
• When there are openings in the company does the leadership look to fill those spots from the inside first?  Who are some people who have recently been promoted?
• Is this company’s leadership flexible with the work/life demands of employees?  What are some examples of current flexible work arrangements?
• Do company leaders provide telecommuting options to get work done?
• Does this company prevent workplace bullying?

ATTENTION A**HOLE BOSSES!
Sid Citrus launches campaign to be crowned your King.

Orange Rebel Productions today announced the launch of a new comedy web series, Sid Citrus: A**hole Boss, in partnership with inaugural corporate sponsor, The People Group. “Sid’s goal in life is to be universally acclaimed by his peers as the King of all corporate assholes. Sid Citrus already stands head and shoulders above every other jerk boss out there,” laughs writer-director Fred Emmer. “Or rather I should say, he floats.” Sid Citrus is an orange. A floating, philandering orange to be exact, who wears a tie, including Saturdays. And he’s not very nice.

“I laughed my head off when Fred gave me the script. I immediately knew we had to get this made,” recalls workplace consultant Kevin Kennemer, principal of The People Group. “That Sid Citrus, what an absolutely amazing jerk!” The first three webisodes tell story of how rookie cube dweller Brett comes to realize that his floating orange boss is a bully and an a**hole and that standing up to him can lead to lethal consequences, literally. “Of course Sid as a character and the story events are beyond farcical,” says Emmer. “But we actually are trying to say something.”

“The issues are real and I deal with them every day,” adds Kennemer, whose consulting practice specializes in helping corporations put people friendly practices in place. “Incivility in the workplace creates huge costs no company can afford to ignore. The effects of psychological mistreatment on
the workforce is brutal and allowing it to go on is immoral. I think Sid Citrus makes the point with humor.”

Fred explains Sid Citrus’s origin. “A friend of mine had recommended Kevin’s blog to me and after reading a few posts I couldn’t believe how candid he was in condemning a**hole behavior in the workplace,” said Emmer. “It hit me viscerally and I was thinking about his post as I strolled to the fruit bowl in the break room. Someone had left a Sharpe marker by the bowl. Two minutes later, Sid Citrus was born,” stated the writer-director from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

One school of thought is that every organization should have one a**hole. That might be okay if the asshole is kept around so their behavior can be used as a bad example, and if they are not too high in the organization. Kind of like an object lesson in a**holeology. But most organizations aren’t
that sophisticated. Inevitably corporate a**holes wind up breeding like rabbits, eventually poisoning the entire organization.

“I’ve already heard it from my wife, don’t be a Sid,” says Emmer. “He’s not even real and he’s already helping me put a check on my own behavior. I hope we can spread this around,” states Emmer. “Don’t be a Sid.” Sid Citrus: A**hole Boss can be viewed at: www.youtube.com/sidcitrus and at www.SidCitrus.Com.

About Orange Rebel Productions
Orange Rebel Productions is a Tulsa based media production company specializing in viral
video production for the web.

About The People Group
The People Group is a Tulsa based consulting firm committed to improving employee lives,
business performance and society through positive people practices consulting. The company
was founded on the premise that positive people practices result in better organizations.
The People Group proved that a leadership team that adopts, models and promotes positive
people practices benefits business, for people, for customers and society.

Kevin Kennemer, The People Group founding partner, provides a short article on A Word About the Term A**hole.

Media Contacts

Fred Emmer | Writer-Producer | Orange Rebel Productions | 918.519.6206 | sidcitrus@gmail.com

Kevin Kennemer | Founder & Partner | The People Group | 1.888.797.9992 | kevin@thepeoplegroupllc.com

Throughout my life I have chosen not to engage in the use of profanity. It stems from my devoted faith in God and respect for others taught to me by my parents.  However, in our YouTube movie series, Sid Citrus: A**hole Boss, we have purposefully adopted the term.  There is no other term that properly grabs the attention and isolates the severity of the psychopathic actions of the highly toxic and abusive manager.

Although I am not completely comfortable with the use of the term in our movies and in my writings, I am even more uncomfortable with the terribly costly psychological abuse occurring every day at the hands of corporate assholes, a.k.a., jerks and bullies.

According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, prolonged exposure to workplace psychological abuse leads to debilitating anxiety, panic attacks, clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), gastrointestinal diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and even suicide.  The affects of long-term psychological abuse in the workplace can set-off a tidal wave of physical and mental health conditions that can forever alter the target of the corporate a**hole’s wrath.  Bottom line, the unchecked, health-harming treatment that continues with the complicit approval of company leaders is more offensive to me than the term, a**hole.

We understand there is a certain amount of resistance to the term.  Realistically, when the word is used in a movie it would, at worst, provoke a PG rating.

The more important issue is not the term but our unified actions to eliminate such health-harming behavior against targets all across American workplaces.

To learn more about the high cost of these workplace deviants, read Stanford Professor Robert Sutton’s book, “The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t” and Workplace Bullying Institute Founder Dr. Gary Namie’s book, “The Bully at Work.”

Working diligently and faithfully to create a civilized workplace.

Respectfully,

Kevin Kennemer
Founder & Partner
The People Group
Certified Great Workplace

Mrs. Searcy, my eighth grade social studies teacher, was really mad at me.  The Madison Junior High School teacher was lecturing about writing on our desks, a significant problem at the time. Because students were writing on their desks, she was laying down the law.  I suppose the offense was right up there with cutting class, loitering in the halls and smoking in the bathroom. It was the 1970’s.

In response to her Do Not Write on the Desk lecture, I took my pencil and wrote on my desk, “Do not write on this desk!” – about 25 times.  I was just being funny.  However, when Mrs. Searcy strolled down my aisle she didn’t see the humor in my message.

Since I apparently enjoyed writing that phrase, Mrs. Searcy proceeded to assign homework as an object lesson.  That evening I was required to write “Do not write on this desk” 500 times and return the assignment the next day.  My writing hand felt like an out of shape and overweight middle aged man trying to play football: cramped, injured and lifeless.  I wrote that phrase 500 excruciating times while watching the Six Million Dollar Man and Charlie’s Angels.

Moral of the Story

What’s the moral of this story? When you focus on telling people what they can’t do, be prepared for the results: One or more individuals just might try it.

When human resource professionals develop policy manuals, the tendency is to focus on the negatives; what not to do. The human response is to test boundaries.  I have found discussing the positives of employment rather than the negatives to be much more effective in creating a great working environment.

Galveston’s Flagship Hotel

Consider the case of the Flagship Hotel in Galveston, Texas.  This pier based hotel, constructed in the 1960’s, stretches 1,000 feet out to sea, capturing a panoramic view.  Since the balconies were directly above the ocean, management decided to place signs in the room stating, “Do Not Fish on Balcony.”

When the hotel was completed and ready to open, guess what started to happen?  Guests began to fish off their balconies.  Hotel guests would tie large lead weights to their fishing line to reach the ocean floor several stories below.  Some guests would cast their line and miss the ocean altogether and the line would swing back towards the hotel, along with the heavy lead weights.  Unfortunately, there were large picture windows on the first floor dining room and hotel management had to replace a number of broken windows. The crashing sound of windows breaking was a common occurrence to dining room guests.

The Solution

After evaluating their predicament, management wisely decided to remove all the “Do not fish on balcony” signs. This immediately resolved the problem of guests fishing on the balcony.  It turns out guests did not even think about fishing until they read the sign.

When developing or updating your company policies, consider this lesson.  Develop policies from a positive perspective and see if your negative workplace issues are self-induced.