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Have you visited an office where everybody grumbles? Public sector banks of just a decade ago would have fit that category. The darwan wants to know what you want. He’s been asked to identify and keep out terrorists and bank robbers. If he saw one of them, he would run a mile — and the bank would give him an award for having raised the alarm. The lady at the counter is talking to her colleague — complaining, no doubt, that the tea is late. The man with the ledgers says they are too heavy for one peon to carry; he wants another one assigned. The man doling out the cash is not numerate. He counts it twice and then hands the money over to a colleague to count again. Even the bank chairman has a grouse that he has been given only a one-year term.
Making such people change at a cultural level was a miracle. Says Rajesh Chakrabarti, a professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad who has written a book on the State Bank of India (SBI) titled Grit, Guts and Gumption: “Changing people’s mindsets was going to be way harder than changing their business cards.”
What was true of SBI was true of all the other nationalised banks and customer-facing government organisations such as the passport office or the motor vehicles department.
To solve a problem of this dimension, it is necessary to get to the roots. First, most of these services were thoroughly corrupt, something that has been inherited from the British. The British rulers thought big. Their version of corruption was to extort huge amounts from the rich. Both Robert Clive and Warren Hastings were hauled up by British parliament for making massive amounts of money illegally. Clive’s defence was that he could have made much more. Today’s petty babu also expects to make money. For ordinary citizens who can’t bribe their way, it will obviously be tough going.
Because of the influence of the Left, which believes in jobs without working and promotions based on tenure (not merit), there is no incentive to perform or improve customer service. Without training, there is no future. VRS (voluntary retirement schemes) is the only other choice for workplace dinosaurs. With very little actual work (and six people to do the work of one), there is a climate of idleness. These government workers are very much like our parliamentarians who also do very little work, get money, shout a lot, go on strike and force the management (in this case the government) to give them more money.
These are issues peculiar to India. Negativity worldwide has rather different roots. According to about.com, an expert on everything under the sun, negativity is caused by excessive workload, concern about management competence, anxiety about the future, lack of challenge, and insufficient recognition. None of these apply to the traditional Indian company.
But negativity does. It is present in almost all public sector undertakings and in traditional private sector companies. What are the textbook recipes for this? Cherie Carter-Scott, the author of Negaholics: How to Overcome Negativity and Turn Your Life Around, says the first step is identification. She has two sets of words. Which set applies to you? No prizes for guessing which makes for a negativist. Category A — angry, anxious, confused, hesitant, insecure, lonely... Category B — calm, capable, certain, competent, confident, happy...
“Get off the complaint train,” says Jon Gordon, the author of The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work. He’s been hard at work on this subject. Another offering is Soup — “A recipe to nourish your team and culture”. And finally Gordon’s survivor’s guide to these turbulent times — The Shark and the Goldfish: Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change. For the negativists out there, these books are worth their weight in goldfish.
RETURN TO POSITIVITY
How to cope with negativity in the workplace
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Look inward — Are you part of the problem? The first thing to do when faced with a problem is to examine your role in it.
Communicate to alleviate — The most effective tool when it comes to combating negativity is communication. Open, honest communication can go a long way in gaining the confidence of your seniors and colleagues.
Belling the cat — Negativity can also stem from discontent over the company’s policies. If employees are unhappy with a new policy that has been introduced or a change in one they were particularly fond of, chances are they will let the matter simmer over coffee-break conversations.
Steer clear — Though getting involved might help, sometimes the best strategy is to keep your distance. A negative or pessimistic colleague may just be out to gain sympathy or attention. Don’t let it bother you.
