Workplace Culture & Behaviors

Behaviors In and Out of the Workplace

Let’s talk about it. All Humans have behaviors; therefore, they bring them to the workplace. Anytime the word behavior is brought up, most think negative immediately. As though positive and good ones never exist. Behavior comes in all sorts of categories, so let’s cover the basics first (not in a clinical way, let’s keep this simple).

Overt vs. Covert – overt behaviors are the ones openly displayed and immediately observable. These are a norm in recognizing good, neutral, or bad behaviors or actions. Covert ones tend to be more subtle or hidden. Let’s not go all villainess; these are just kept quieter or low-key. With both overt and covert, there are components of intentional and unintentional. 

In the Workplace Examples:

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• Overt vs. Covert – overt behaviors are the ones openly displayed and immediately observable. These are a norm in recognizing good, neutral, or bad behaviors or actions. Covert ones tend to be more subtle or hidden. Let’s not go all villainess; these are just kept quieter or low-key. With both overt and covert, there are components of intentional and unintentional.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Overt behaviors are walking, talking, laughing, crying.

      • David’s laugh is well known and gets louder at Jaymis’s desk because they are good friends

      • Keisha is walking fast, that means she wants to get to conference room first to grab her favorite seat

      • The table for interns is always the loudest in the café at noon.

    • Covert behaviors are more subtle or hidden.

      • Raheem keeps withholding information on the project we are both on, he doesn’t like that credit for work is shared

      • Nancy is holding back on something; she appears to be angry looking at her body language

    • Intentional behaviors are hiding, fighting or fleeing

      • Jason called in again, it’s odd that this always happens on a day he needs to cover another team while their manager is out

      • Jenny is purposely disrupting the meeting and taking credit for work that she didn’t do, this happens every time the CEO attends this review.

    • Unintentional behaviors are slips, falls, struck by, poisoning

      • Nikki fell on ice when she went to pick up our coffee order this morning.

      • Rachel insisted on everyone trying the mangos she bought today, April ended up with an allergic reaction after she sampled a slice.

• Conscious vs. Unconscious – these behaviors are our most well-known ones. Unconscious ones happen without awareness, autopilot almost. Conscious ones are the fully aware ones, we know we are making that choice, even when we try to pretend otherwise.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Unconscious behaviors are blinking, smelling, and breathing. We do these automatically

      • Breathing, it happens without any thought or effort from us

    • Conscious behaviors are the behaviors we know we are doing

      • Frank chose to wear those same filthy pair of jeans this week three times

      • Danielle dramatically dropped the files on the counter and walked away without putting them away

      • Mike refused to correct the client proposal where inaccurate prices were entered

• Rational vs Irrational – these behaviors have different drivers; rational appear as logic thought actions or words. Irrational is driven by emotions, without logic. Both are visible and also tend to label individuals in the workplace.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Rational behaviors tend to be predictive and/or logic-based thinking

      • Clara, our network engineer (known as Wizard), will drill into the result discrepancies and figure out the issue

      • Let’s get Baxter on this to help you, once you get past the dry detailed Python and Java lingo, then the list of a 100 questions and because he likes cycled of 3, asking if you have cats.

    • Irrational behaviors are all emotion driven; these are the individuals in the workplace that are well known for their behaviors, generally none of them are good behaviors.

      • Jay went off this morning, started yelling, swearing and stomping around the yard, no one knows what the trigger was today

      • During the company picnic lunch, Carol started crying and ran out of the tent shouting that the BBQ chicken had bones in it, which she doesn’t like.

• Voluntary vs Involuntary – these are similar as rational or irrational in the workplace; we all can identify these quickly. Involuntary are things out of our control and voluntary are acts of choosing.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Voluntary behaviors are how we want to be seen and what we believe is appropriate. All of us make choices on how we will behave at work, in a store, or at home.

      • Geoff, the Senior Vice President is always so calm and thoughtful when he facilitates quarterly meetings.

      • Brian enjoys burping to beatboxing in the truck, his co-workers don’t enjoy it.

    • Involuntary behaviors are ones that are out of control. An individual has reflexes or flinching movements.

      • Samuel has Parkinson’s and tends to have more shaking on his right arm, then the left one. So, he needs to sit in this seat from meetings.

• Ethical vs Unethical – these come down to who violates or supports laws or regulations; when in the workplace the goal is all have ethical behaviors. With laws or regulations, there are gray areas, staying in the middle is always a good place. Strong understanding the law or regulation is extremely beneficial.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Unethical behaviors are in almost any business or industry; because employees are human, and as humans make choices. Unethical leaders and employees always believe they can outrun the law with risks.

      • Bart, the owner of a construction company, falsely reports on the OSHA 300 log, to get large contracts and doesn’t believe in safety programs

      • Rob regularly changes hours or doesn’t pay overtime on his non-exempt employees to save on payroll cost

      • Kylie in accounting records the amount the customer sent in and takes $10 for herself, blames the bank teller for errors on the deposit.

    • Ethical behaviors are the ones where all employees follow the handbook, laws, regulations and any other process to ensure compliance.

      • Andy is very thorough with his compliance responsibilities and reports, as an auditor. He always includes backup documentation

      • Hector, HVAC tech, while working at a customer’s house found a ring under the unit. He immediately gave it to the homeowner.

 

Learned to Conditioned Behaviors – these next behaviors are what we are born with, learned or relearned and reactions to triggers or experiences. Employees bring these behaviors into the workplace, so it’s important to understand them. Understanding them doesn’t mean giving a pass on actions that aren’t allowed in the workplace. In the employee’s side it’s not an excuse to continue a poor or offensive one.

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• Innate – these are behaviors that we are born with. Instinctively we know we need food, water and shelter. It’s a hardwired biological drive inside us all.

• Learned – these are conditioned responses to a stimulus, in which we learned or acquired through observations and practice, some associate with habits.

  • General Examples:

    • If the stove is on, don’t touch it with your bare hand or you’ll be burned

    • If the doorbell rings, go to the door (or look at who’s at the door on your phone) and open the door.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Fred, during his onboarding learned how to enter and exit the building using a key fob for security reasons

    • Our building had its annual fire drill today; we learned that our meeting spot was changed to the North parking lot

    • Doug is on week three of turbine safety training, it’s a conditioning training.
       

• Prosocial – these behaviors are taught; they range from interests, manners, desires, respect, to volunteering. Taught by your parents, family, community, religious affiliations, and/or schools.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Sasha, Norm, and Jackie enjoyed volunteering experience at Habitat for Humanity, getting paid for those days even more

    • Matt is very polished and polite; it must come from his upbringing in the United Kingdom.

    • Reenie is always dressed up, wears expensive suits and dress. Goal is to be VP in three years.
       

• Collective – this behavior occurs when a collective or group participates together, instead of on a singular basis or individual basis. Mostly associated with riots, crowds, disasters, or mass hysteria.

  • In the Workplace Examples:

    • Employees are the Speed Stop Production Group were successful in forming a union, their goal was to improve wages, benefits and the working conditions
       

• Replacement – is a conditioned behavior, which is used to replace another behavior which is generally considered a poor one.

  • Example:

    • Using a deep breathing exercise when you feel stressed

    • Removing yourself from a situation you are uncomfortable with
       

All of us are made up of a mix of them. We also have the ability learn and change; so, over our lifetime our behaviors change.

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The purpose of understanding behavior is important in the workplace, because we all are different with a common goal of completing work. There isn’t a gray area between an excuse or a reason. A choice was made to do that action. A reason behind that choice. Can’t use the excuse that you are grieving the loss of your mother over a year ago.

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Mental Health & Personal Struggles

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Let’s talk about mental health and personal struggles; how they come into play with behaviors. As a country we do a terrible job with mental health and have fundamental resources available to everyone to get the support and care they need. Using the broad umbrella for mental health which covers psychological, emotional, and social well-being from mental distress, physical suffering, addictions, substance abuse and clinical disorders. Personal struggles relate to insecure housing, food, clothing, childcare, transportation, and working multiple jobs to live paycheck to paycheck.

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Everything listed in the above is difficult. It’s a fact. Accepting a job, based on the job description (duties and tasks, with physical environment) and schedule means that you agree to those responsibilities. Which means regardless of personal struggles you must be on time, low attendance issues and do the work.

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For those with mental health conditions, the Americans with Disabilities act (ADA) allows for reasonable accommodations to help you perform the essential job duties. Examples of accommodations: schedule modifications, work remote, written instructions instead of verbal ones, blocking visual distractions or a special keyboard, and treatment leave of absences, etc. Working with HR, they can help through the Interactive Process. Accommodation is not guaranteed and more challenging in certain industries. Like personal struggles, if you are accepting a job and can do the essential duties, with accommodation it means being on time, low attendance issues (issues outside of the qualified outages/times) and do the work.

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In the workplace, collectively employees need to come together in a civil and respectful manner to complete work they are being paid to do. No employer is mandating that everyone likes each other. Behaviors outside of unconscious and involuntarily can be controlled. The expectation is simple, find a way to work together. If a situation crosses a line, then this is another topic all together.

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‘The Best’ Personalities in the Workplace

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Let’s talk about it. I’m not going to cover the Monsters here; you can check them out on their own page. I’m going to highlight the core of the workplace; the prevalent personalities that must survive the Monsters. Most of these employees rarely get the recognition they deserve, do their jobs and a few get invisible badges on an invisible sash recognizing their efforts.

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The High Achiever – this employee consistently exceed expectations, delivers results, takes ownership and produces value. Also known as the Work Horse, Dinosaur, High Work Ethic, and Old School. Outstanding problem-solving abilities, proactive instead of reactive, can adapt easily and quickly, be reliable and expect to be held accountable.

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The Competent & Capable – this employee is like the High Achiever in many ways, but overtime they have been able to fly under the radar and develop their boundaries. Think silent ninja meets large workload. The one everyone in the office dreads going on vacation and having to cover their load. C & C knows they are going to walk into mess; knows it’s going to take two weeks to get caught up and loves it.

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The 80/20 Worker – this employee gives a solid 80% everyday; rain or shine. Has firm boundaries about not taking on the extra work from others. Is a serious, sports competition style taker; water breaks, coffee breaks, needs a snack breaks, hello breaks, lunch breaks, the 3p slump needs an energy drink break, needs to check out the extra food from a meeting on the second-floor break. Then takes more bathroom breaks from all the water, coffee, and energy drink breaks.

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The 70/30 Worker – this employee is unique in any industry, it’s not because they do a large workload. It’s not because they have perfect attendance or have a great personality or pay attention to facts and deadlines. Their contribution is that they will do or love to do the tasks other dislike. Filing, updating a spreadsheet, mailings, cleaning equipment, calling maintenance, returning used printer cartridges, etc.

 

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'The Best’ Additional Titles for Personalities in the Workplace

 

In the workplace, there are a few additional titles (not approved by HR) that exist, these take additional years of development to acquire. Employees who hold these titles wear invisible superhero capes that appear during times in the office in a situation that needs to be handled.

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The Gasbag Conqueror – this hero brings order or at least shuts down an individual in a professional (borderline), informal (medium casual), and derogatory (low spicy level) way to someone who talks excessively about subjects they know nothing about. Boasts about achievements that can’t be validated. The ‘gasbag’ is simply a pompous donkey. Bottom-line: the GC shuts them down and gets everyone back on track if in a meeting or redirects in the field.

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The Twit Whisperer – this hero has the patience of a literal saint; kind and uses simple words on repeat to help individuals. Twit comes from British slang which means silly or annoying individual; fluster easily which generally down spirals quickly. When in the wrong role, the TW needs to put on their invisible superhero cape and review, train, or show them how to correct a mistake impacting others.

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The Subversive Slayer – this hero is truly a master of the art of a lethal tongue and fearless. They don’t need to use their invisible superhero cape to take down an individual who is set on destroying, upsetting or attempting to overthrow a project, policy, sale, or system in the organization because they didn’t get their way. Subvert or subversive is generally used in government context. In the corporate world, this behavior exists and its hostile with Managers, VP, SVP and company mergers; where this is the only word that fits. Seen in family-owned companies too.

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The WPS Snark Underground Member – this is a daily bonding ritual among workplace survivors. Like the biochemical process of fermentation to make alcohol, these members have converted over to sarcasm as the result. These superheroes know that if they don’t laugh it out, shake it off or blow it out of their system, they will end up in a chair outside of HR with their manager next to them.