You might be a C-Suite level boss with many managers below you. Many in your management pool may carry over their personal dysfunctions into their work life. Truly, “Who you are is how you lead”.
Not sure if the employee is passive aggressive or just passive? Passive Aggression is an indirect way to express hostility. You could compare it to a stab in the back vs. a slap on the face. It can be confusing, at first, to identify what’s going on because it can be so subtle. Some common identifiers of passive aggression:
- Not showing up at meetings, being habitually late, or leaving early when others are pressing in
- Calling in sick at key times
- Making lots of excuses and blame-casting for poor behavior
- Withholding information from other team members
- Making inappropriate remarks and then passing it off as a joke
- Sarcasm
- Dragging out simple processes from approving forms or dispensing reimbursements to approving transfers and promotions
- Feigning ignorance about the impact of their behavior on their colleagues and subordinates
These employees and managers can be your in-house saboteurs. This behavior sets a negative tone at work, builds walls between departments and politicizes the environment. It also amplifies other employees’ negative feelings, thus becoming a contagion of discontent. We become complicit when we allow such behavior to go unaddressed. Continue reading
Perhaps the Lamb needs to give concessions to the tiger and accept his behaviors. Meanwhile the stalking continues until finally someone had the wisdom to say, “This is ridiculous. You don’t try to make the lamb and tiger communicate better. If you want them to coexist in the same forest you have to cage the bloody tiger!”.
