PUTTIN' COLOGNE ON THE RICKSHAW

If you’ve finally decided to be mad as hell and not going to take it anymore and have found a better job, there’s a trap you don’t want to fall into on your way out the door. That trap is participating in an exit interview.

The fact that you’re leaving might lead you to believe that there’s no harm in offering some honest feedback on the areas that the organization can improve upon. The fact is that little is ever done with the constructive criticism that a company gleans by conducting exit interviews. The truth hurts and most companies are in denial of their issues so all you’ll do is label yourself a whiner or recalcitrant and burn the proverbial bridge. Even if they did act on the information you share, you’re leaving the company so whether they improve based on your suggestions or not is really inconsequential. Certainly to you it is. So why bother.

I personally have never witnessed an organization’s senior staff get together and discuss exit interview information with the intent of weighing the merits to decide whether action needed to be taken. I think they should however. And if they do management will be dumbfounded that any problems exist. This is specifically true if the organization is run by sociopaths. In fact the real reaction by management is that the exiting employee must have had an axe to grind or that he/she wasn’t a good performer anyway so why should he be believed. Good riddance.

Do you have a monkey on your back? Maybe you never really thought much about it. I’m not talking about the typical definition of the monkey, i.e., drugs or alcohol. No, I’m talking about that ugly state of mind, a cross between fear of the future, fear of failure and a sense of dread that just won’t go away when you work in a crappy job in a dysfunctional workplace. Do you spend your Sundays progressively getting more and more anxious and dwell on the fear of having to go back to work on Monday? If you do then you have a monkey on your back.

Do you see it when you look in the mirror or are you in denial? This is the same Monkey that keeps you from performing at your best thus leaving you with a sense of guilt that compounds the feelings you’re experiencing. What causes this sense of doom?

In my book, Puttin’ Cologne on the Rickshaw I detail all the workplace behaviors that can lead to your feeling like you have a monkey on your back. And if you’ve experienced any of these behaviors then trust me you really do have a monkey to contend with.

What’s the answer to this dilemma? You have a couple of options, only one of which will truly make the problem go away. The first and hardest is to just plain toughen up; develop a thick skin and not let the bad behavior and idiocy around you affect you psychologically. The second is to fight back by adopting the same behaviors that you see all around you; become one of them; contribute to the battlefield environment. In the end there’s no silver bullet. I can tell you this; sucking it up and tolerating, or worse yet, becoming one of them only proves an enabler for the bad behaviors.

To rise above you have to ask yourself whether the job is really worth it. Moving on is the only effective way to combat the dysfunctional workplace. It’s the high road. More people need to tell themselves that they’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore and then move on. If more people find new jobs and move on then maybe these dysfunctional organizations will eventually whither on the vine and die the death they deserve.

Assuming you take this path, in my next post I’ll talk about the infamous exit interview. Is it your chance to get even or not?