Identify the Root Cause

Workplace Management

Tom was one happy sales executive in a popular executive firm. He had a nice boss who helped and supported him in his job. Due to this Tom always felt he was working in the best possible company in the world. He would often shower great praises about his company to everyone. One day due to a management reshuffle Tom was assigned to another manager, a maniac with a generous dose of arrogance and rudeness, who was never satisfied or happy with anyone’s work. Suddenly Tom’s world went upside down and within weeks his whole attitude towards work changed. He was no longer interested in his job and slowly his view of the organization also changed. He was now bitterly criticizing the company and everything the company did. Suddenly he felt he was working in a bad company.

Often people who quit organizations have discussions like below.

Jack: Hey, Jim. I heard you quit your job.

Jim: Yeah, I did. It was a lousy company.

Worldwide, thousands of employees like Tom or Jim, who are stressed, bored, or have frequent tiffs with colleagues, managers, and customers behave singularly. That is, they start criticizing the entire company rather than a specific issue, person, or root cause of their trouble. And they often resort to one standard grumble. They believe their organization is not taking care of its employees or value their contribution and so on.

Hence they feel it is appropriate to criticize the company. Psychologically speaking when you are continuously being harassed and abused by someone in the workplace it is possible to lose your sanity and objectivity. It is quite normal in periods of stress and uncertainty for you to start criticizing the entire organization instead of the specific issue or person.