Workplace Vultures.
There’s one in every workplace.
You know the one. The one who is all complaints and no solutions. The person that people actively avoid because it’s too draining to be around them. As it turns out, there’s a reason that it’s emotionally exhausting to be around that person.
Business management author Anne Bruce describes the negative influences in the workplace as “attitude vultures,” (Bruce, 2011).
What’s worse than one attitude vulture? A flock of them.
Characteristics of the Attitude Vulture.
Consistent appearances of attitude vultures such as anger, inflexibility, fear, judgment of others and open animosity “can lead to loss of morale, customers and profit,” (Bruce, 2011). In a workplace that is experiencing significant levels of group stress due to isolation and frequent changes in leadership, it’s not surprising that employees may be prone to victimization by these attitude vultures.
The effect of attitude vultures is even more pronounced in smaller workplaces, particularly in rural areas.
In the small fictional town of Tiny, USA, the school staff is comprised of fewer than 50 people. Most of the 50 staff members were born and raised in Tiny themselves and harbor a certain amount of fear and self-doubt regarding any change to their school system. A certain amount of defensiveness of the local culture and a subconscious judgment of the newly arrived principal is to be expected. But what steps should a new principal take to mitigate an entire flock of attitude vultures?
Taking the Lead
Taking all of these factors into consideration, the new principal has several options. Implementing standing weekly staff meetings where the team can set and measure campus-wide goals is a great start. During these weekly meetings, tasks of varying yet appropriate complexity are assigned as well as an understanding of the level of commitment that will be expected from the employee to complete those tasks. The principal knows that clear communication is crucial to building trust in the new leadership and goes a long way toward dissolving anger, inflexibility, fear, judgment of others and animosity among staff. During all of the subsequent meetings for the year, both the new principal and the staff/faculty will provide feedback to each other which will provide the clarity needed to assess and refocus campus goals.
The principal is following Locke and Latham’s goal-setting theory, because she understands that the theory’s effectiveness has proven to transcend culture—an incredibly beneficial aspect of the theory in rural areas.
To date, the goal setting theory has shown generality across participants, tasks, nationality, goal source, settings, experimental designs, outcome variables, levels of analysis (individual, group, division, and organizational), and time spans. (Locke & Latham, 2019)
This is particularly important in a new cultural environment that has been proven to be largely inflexible and judgmental toward outside influences.
If the principal uses the right methodologies and stays consistent, the attitude vultures will eventually leave the organization permanently to roost elsewhere.
-The Penguins
References
Bruce, A. (2011). Manager’s guide to motivating employees. McGraw-Hill.
