Surviving Poor Management 9: Rumor, Innuendo, & Secret

This continues our series on how to survive poor management at work and grow

Elaine started her career working for a private company in the greater Los Angeles area. The owner of the company fostered distrust and contention among his employees. He would pit them against one another to see which one would perform best. He criticized and spread rumors about his employees. He approached Elaine to assert herself more in the office because the manager was incompetent. Unbeknownst to her, the owner had approached her manager encouraging him to keep Elaine in line because she was too uppity. The owner thought it would stimulate greater productivity. Instead, production dropped, profits fell, and both Elaine and the manager left the company.

Importance of Transparency and Credible Communication

Studies substantiate that companies with transparent lines of communication fair better than companies based on rumor, innuendo, and secrets. Stephen M. R. Covey’s excellent work The Speed of Trust highlights that lack of trust cost companies millions of dollars. Trust literally speeds production, profits, and results. Many organizations found communicating openly with workers about profits, production, and challenges pay financial dividends.

Consequences of Rumor, Innuendo, & Secrets at Work

When rumor, innuendo, and secrets replace official communication in a company terrible things happen. For example,

• Informal communication supersedes official communication as a form of trust
• Good employees choose not to work at a company that fosters those practices
• Employees who enjoy the environment stay and do you trust them
• Production and morale suffer from lost time trying to discern what is really happening
• Trust in management, trust in co-workers, and trust in communications evaporates
• Some employees ostracize other employees leading to greater distrust and confusion
• Law suites filed by employees against employers for hostile environments

Compensating for Rumor, Innuendo, and Secrets

• Keep open communication with management, co-workers, and others
• Do not participate in sharing rumors or innuendos about others
• Kindly confront rumors, innuendos, and secrets with those being discussed
• Establish guidelines, policies, and procedures that foster transparency

Monday we review the impact of high turnover, low morale, and poor performance on your job

This blog will improve as you submit comments, questions, and experiences. We will answer your questions in future blog posts. Please submit your comments and questions so we can answer them.