Attitude in the Workplace · • thinking the world owes them. ... • penalized for giving...

Attitude in the Workplace

Report

Janice Davies Attitude Specialist

Professional Conference Speaker Business Trainer Success Strategist

Author

P O Box 83218 Edmonton Auckland Phone 09 424 8400 Mobile 021 514 511

Email [email protected]

Janice Davies – the lady with nice in her name. Attitude Specialist

www.attitudespecialist.co.nz 2

Contact Information Published by: Attitude Specialist P O Box 83218 Edmonton Auckland New Zealand MOBILE 021 514 511 Phone 09 424 8400 (International +64 9424 8400) Email: [email protected] Copyright © 2007 Janice Davies This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. All effort was made to render this report free from error and omission. However the author, publisher, editor, their employees or agents shall not accept responsibility for injury, loss or damage to any person or body or organization action or refraining from action as a result of material in this book, whether or not such injury, loss or damage is in any way due to any negligent act or omission, breach of duty, or default on the part of the author, publisher, editor or their employees or agents. www.attitudespecialist.co.nz



Contents

Page 4 Introduction 5 Report 6 First some information from other reports. 8 Survey Questions 9 Survey Answers 19 Conclusion 7 major findings 3 recommendations to employees 3 recommendations to employers 20 Close 21 References



INTRODUCTION Janice works with motivating and inspiring people’s thinking and attitude to springboard them to success. She’s an expert she says, because she had to do it for herself. She thought happiness, fulfillment and success would just happen. She didn’t realise that she had to create it. She learnt the hard way by changing her self-belief from that of a person with low self-esteem, to a person with high self-esteem who believes that the world is her oyster! Her greatest journey, after many stumbles along the way, was discovering her real self. Re-aligning her dreams, and years of working towards making them a reality followed that realization. A few of her successes include surviving fifteen years as a single parent and raising two daughters, ‘the greatest learning curve out’ she says, ‘and the most rewarding’. Also, volunteering to work in the patrol boats for the 2000 America’s Cup and self-publishing her first book, Sailing a Different Course. Her business is called Attitude Specialist and she works with corporates, groups and individuals, steering them towards success. Her presentation topics for conferences and conferences include Attitude, Stress, Work/Life Balance, Communication, Personalities, Goals and Tricky people and more. She has authored seven books. She is adamant that self-esteem is the key to success and shares a little of her knowledge in this book. She is the founder of the International Self Esteem Day. Her goal is to expand this idea worldwide.



Attitude in the Workplace Report

Janice Davies – Attitude Specialist

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This is a report carried out over two years about Attitude in the Workplace. An additional over 1000 companies and schools across both islands, cities and rural areas were contacted. It has been online and answered by visitors to the website www.attitudespecialist.co.nz The reason for collecting this information is to collect research for a book and workshops. Answers were provided to a collection of questions. These were answered anonymously.



1 First some information from other reports.

a) On 2nd August 2007, a report carried out by Dunedin’s’ Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study from the University of Otago, among many findings revealed that almost half of the cases of depression or generalized anxiety disorder newly diagnosed at age- 32 were directly related to workplace stress and high job demands. b) Massey University’s college of Humanities and Social Sciences conducted a study on the North Shore in Auckland in 2004 and the employment report highlights amongst other things, the need for better personal skills like attitude and work ethic. It revealed that along with other measures, these are imperative for business growth in the next 3 to 5 years which is 2007 to 2009. c) In 2004, the New Zealand Herald quoted a Ministry of Social Development report that maintains there had been a 618% increase in people applying for sickness benefit. The greatest reason had been listed as workplace stress. d) It has been acknowledged by the Gallup survey that employees in New Zealand who are not fully engaged with their work are costing employers a considerable amount of money. It was discovered in August 2004, that thousands of employees are disengaged at work, at an estimated costing more than $3.6 billion a year in lost productivity. Over 75% of these actively disengaged employees are less likely to stay with their employees. Those who do are more of a liability than an asset not recommending their company or products to customers. e) The Herald on August 3rd 2007 reported on another study by Dr Lester Levy called ‘More Right than Real – the Shape of Authentic Leadership in New Zealand’. His report and reveled that only 37.4 percent of New Zealand workers regarded their bosses as ‘authentic’. In other words, six out of 10 employees think their bosses have low self-awareness, little capacity to create good relationships and let outside pressures guide their behaviour instead of personal moral beliefs.



f) In July 2007, the Herald reported the findings of an Australian survey taken online by Career One. It claimed 74 per cent of Australian employees have been bullied at work. The article continued stating that less than one percent took legal action or confronted their tormentor which indicates a great many people are getting away with bullying colleagues Although I travel around New Zealand with my hot topic workshop Dealing with Difficult People & Tricky Situations, and meet people who are under huge stress at work and those being bullied, which is also what I educate people on, these questions below were related to attitudes in the workplace.



2 My research for a period of over two years asked these questions:

a) What is your biggest challenge about employees’ attitude?

b) If you’re an employer, what do you do to keep your employees motivated?

c) What do you do to improve peoples’ attitude to work?

d) How do you keep motivated at work?

e) What education do you supply OR receive at work?

f) Is employees’ attitude related to the service they are giving?

g) How do you stay positive at work, when the pressure is on?

h) Do you think people have a sense of achievement, job well done at

work?

i) How do you show people a job well done at work?

j) What does your company do for ‘fun’ at work?



These were the relevant answers: a) What is your biggest challenge about employee’s attitude?

The largest percentage of answers included the challenge with employees • arriving at work but not working • disengagement • thinking the world owes them.

This lack of personal responsibility leads to the ‘blame’ theory. It’s always someone else and not me, therefore the same values regarding responsibility and work ethics was challenged. Managing the view of the employers responsibility versus the employees view of responsibility. This extends to the ‘fair policies’ treatment of people. Other answers included:

• challenge with leadership • lack of leadership • egos • lack of integrity from management • lack of trust. • team leaders not responsible for successes and failures of team • penalized for giving constructive feedback when asked for • using language that people cannot understand during feedback •

Bullying and inflexibility appeared commonplace, whether it referred to leaders or work colleagues was unclear. Workloads had increased with the number of urgent requests increasing and demands had increased with lack of staff and resources to fill them. For some people the workload pressures did not allow for any positivity at work, along with it’s not my job or problem, therefore no sense of responsibility.



Staff feeling un-empowered or not having the life skills to be empowered reveals a lack of esteem and living in fear thus leading into resisting change and entrenched beliefs and inflexibility. In some work environments, bringing negativity into work from outside was a challenge, along with the added fact that being positive was perceived as Polyanna-ism. Although many work environments embraced a negative attitude, equally it appears many did not. Creating this included:

• working alongside the employees • being the leader and showed that staff were valued • giving variety • rewarded • incentives • asked for feedback and acted upon their ideas.

In essence the staff were valued in the organization. On a brighter side it appeared that younger staff were willing to try new ideas and systems, compared to older ones who were entrenched in their established patterns and thinking. Additionally the employees who remain positive and kept their sense of humour were valuable and made a difference in the environment. Loyalty appears to have disappeared in some companies…instead replaced by suspicion. Added to this is lack of personal responsibility. b) If you’re an employer, what do you do to keep your employees motivated? Positive answers were received here. This was aimed at employers. The included:

• loyalty • fairness to employees • training • rewards



• incentive and bonus schemes • regular informal get togethers • leading by example looking for solutions

Appreciation came in the form of smiles and words of appreciation. Keep introducing variety into work and acting on requests for changes. Some companies included their staff in the planning and vision of the business, thus keeping them informed of the businesses progress. In general making them feel special and appreciated and allowing them to reap the benefits of a good attitude. This was shown by:

• setting goals and rewards if targets achieved • spot gifts • staff meetings with a theme • movie passes

Other answers included: Leading by example, displaying a positive attitude to everything and showing them that even the ‘too hard basket’ has a positive side. In one answer it appeared that providing ‘stimulates’ was regarded as ‘never enough’, by the employees who did not take personal responsibility for ‘doing for themselves’, instead waiting for everything to be organised for them. It appears this answer was from an employee where it was revealed that intimidation and bullying was negative behaviour still used in the workplace in contradiction to motivation to get better performance. The next question tied into a similar theme. c) What do you do to improve people’s attitude at work? This affirmed the:

• rewards and recognition programs are the most popular • along with the financial incentives.



This was followed by words of; • appreciation • accentuating the positive • making people feel special • smiling • treating them as adults • offering personal growth • coaching • counseling and showing a better way • additional training and having a positive attitude

Numerous times it was mentioned it was paramount that the company provided the right environment. It was also mentioned a company provide a safe working environment and actually make employees aware of that. A criteria in one company was to remove the barriers and bring in the experts if needed, ensuring people felt valued. As one manager wrote ‘Hire for enthusiasm and train for skill’. d) How do you keep motivated at work? This was answered by anyone in the workplace. I.e. Employer or employee. Ninety nine percent stated self motivation as their key. Goal setting, raising one’s personal standards to engage in something new and a variety of positive methods were engaged by people. It was great to see that companies have feedback from employees who say everyone here enjoys their job and they appreciate comments from satisfied clients. However, some companies provided extra time off for birthday’s accommodation for travel for special personal events and making them really feel worth something to the company. They also involved staff in interesting aspects of the business not just their area of work. Helping others was another motive along with outside training and implementation of those ideas.



In the sales arena, it was achieving sales and getting repeat business which resulted in bonuses and seeing the company thrive. The DVD “The Secret’ talks about the attitude of gratitude, and this was revealed with the pleasure of having a job and some positives of it, along with ‘the new skills’ that can be acquired if applying oneself to the job. In summary, none of these companies mentioned that they included any motivation for staff instead they were rewarded for success. Most employees appeared to organise their own motivation and positive thinking with books and people. One employee answered - “our employer uses bullying, mind games, nastiness and intimidation as draconian methods of control, instead of adopting a culture of an environment of encouragement, and empowerment, based on integrity, respect and trust”. e) What education do you supply or receive at work? A wide variety of education was included in 2/3rds of the results.

• Motivational CD’s. • Technical, job related skills and knowledge training. • Prints (assuming this is motivational wall plaques). • Job specifications, work procedures and tools to complete the tasks. • Self development • Virtual education • Coaching • Apprenticeships • Formal and non formal training. • Fletcher Building short courses

Specialists, including a joyologist (Pat Armitstead is the Joyologist) and team building were also brought in for in-house training. The only time limit I received was one person who received about 180 hours of additional education per year. In saying that no-one gave any additional time frames.



On the negative side, there were answers that no education or training was received by employees, although others were encouraged to do additional work based training, but at their own expense. f) Is employee’s attitude related to the service they are giving? On the whole – YES. Positive people give good service but if you’re just doing a job because you need a job, there is little enthusiasm. If your income is determined by your service, people are more motivated to give good service. On the negative side, people who were not acknowledged for a job ‘well done’ or service and lose interest in suggesting ideas, and striving to achieve, therefore negativity arises. Additionally, those people with a negative or ‘don’t care’ attitude have a tendency:

• not to give good service • low expectations of life • give a low level of service • are too busy • no time for niceties • always someone else’s fault.

On a positive, somebody confirmed that ‘attitude’ can be improved if you can give them enough reason and they can see and/or reap the benefits. Along with this someone stated their answer in reverse, that their behaviour determines the attitude, therefore they believe work on behaviour first and an improved attitude will be the result. g) How do you stay positive at work, when the pressure is on? Where it is a positive environment it’s easy and people are:

• more willing to work as a team to achieve • focus on the end result of the goal, • believe that things can only get better, rather than the present

challenges.



Techniques used include the following:

• setting small achievable targets • helping team members • communication • making light of situations • having fun • finding solutions • thinking positive about the outcome • prioritizing • delegating • prioritizing • keeping balance • head down and ‘get into it’. • smiling • doing your best • realizing the end outcome is affected by what the individual has

control over • work is only one part of life, soon it’s home time. • The challenge of finding seemingly impossible solutions and not

addressing it as a problem. Other one off answers included:

• Risk analysis sets an unwritten mode of thoughts…that the worst case scenario will never happen, so let’s work on achieving.

• Pressure is a state of mind or thinking and something only the

individual has control over.

• Time out for replenishing themselves was important and ranged from half an hour to one person was fortunate to have plenty of breaks and one week off every ten weeks.

On a negative note, a few answers revealed the challenge to remain positive working in a negative work environment where no-one strives to perform. h) Do you think people have a sense of achievement – job well done?



A variety of answers were received for this question. As an employer, 95% said ‘yes’. However, the majority is that the employees:

• have a sense of achievement • not always be acknowledged by the employer • you pat your own back for a job you’ve done well

Additionally, those who want to achieve are sometimes:

• not supported with training • no up-skilling to perform well • left to their own devices to learn.

Other one off answers included:

• There are those people for whom success comes only in dollar terms and not measured by any other means.

• Some people don’t know what it’s like to understand if you work

hard, you can actually feel good and are constantly in the ‘cant’ do’ attitude. It appears the same with success, some don’t know how to celebrate it or how to deal with the lack of success.

• On another note, some employees expect monetary rewards for every

achievement. i) How do you show people a job is well done at work? A range of recognition methods:

• small gifts • cards • certificates • morning teas • social events • telling them they ‘made a difference’ • acknowledging them verbally • ‘thank you’ personally as well as publicly • time off for additional time worked • extra time off as a bonus



Financial rewards in the form of: • bonus • pay increase • one company had salary reviews more frequently than the normal

annual review. Other one off answers included:

• Encouraging one another to excel. • One manager was kind enough to personally pay for the rewards.

i) What does your company do for fun at work? Approximately 2/3rds of replies engaged in some type of enjoyable fun team activities. Fun activities included:

• regular gatherings • sports activities • Friday morning teas • drinks and nibbles • lunches • themed nights • Christmas and birthday parties • social gatherings • awards and certificates • $200 per person to organise their own group activities outside of work

in the essence of creating a family work team Fun or enjoyment at work was ‘not allowed’ in about 1/3rd of companies. Non fun activities included:

• nothing was scheduled • more work to people having worked hard to achieve a goal • no incentives were provided to achieve. • nothing allocated to create a good work environment

Small teams appeared to have a challenge to create fun at work…instead relying on the individual’s different personalities and fun and laughter times together when they do meet.



At the opposite end of the scale in some large companies social clubs have not worked, instead groups have set up their own social activities. Other one off answers included: Team celebrations of achievements and successes, when the employers and employees equally work hard together they play hard together. Spontaneity…if we win…we celebrate. This was the overview of the answers received. The age group or gender was not assessed in this survey. However, it appears that the majority of people who replied were from supportive work environments.



CONCLUSION The 7 major findings of this research are:

• Negative attitude and disengagement from work is prevalent • Lots of positive re-enforcement and rewards were used • Motivation at work is self directed • Wide variety of education is utilised • Positive people give good service, negative people don’t • Wide variety of skill used when pressure at work • Embrace enjoyment and fun as an investment in employees

In light of those results my recommendations are:- To employers….

• Value and respect your employers as a business investment • Increase workplace motivation • Improve the attitude of employees

To employees….they have a responsibility to work into this as well.

• Appreciate your present employment • Volunteer for learning new skills • Take personal responsibility for your own success



Close…. I believe that the majority of underperformance can be directly related to two things. First – lack of education and knowledge by the employer. Second – lack of education and knowledge by the employee. Reward for success is great…but take a step backwards and motivate to succeed and greater results will be achieved. The notion of social responsibility is whispering here. Businesses are transformed when enlightenment occurs. We are the first country each day, every day to greet the world. Hundreds of thousands of people would love to live here. In essence, the privileged few million do. Let’s spread the privilege across that population and lead the world in an attitude revolution that transforms individuals and business. We need to Believe in ourselves and Be positive about it!



References Employment Skills North Shore – Massey University College of Humanities 2004 Workplace Stress – Ministry of Social Development. New Zealand – 2004 Disengagement - Gallup Survey. New Zealand 2005 Bullying - Career One – Australia – 2007 Stress & Workplace Pressure – Multidisciplinary Study – New Zealand 2007 If you have any questions about this report please contact Janice Davies. Contact details on front page.

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