How Coworkers Attitudes Impact your Performance
Can co-worker’s attitudes affect your own performance?
This is a trick question; the short answer is yes.
The real question, however, is how much control you have over your emotions. It is also relevant to determine what the attitude of your co-workers is, and how it negatively affects your ability to do your job. You will also want to evaluate how much you want to do your job; that is, what is your own attitude toward your job? And finally, do you have the sort of job that actually requires their continuous cooperation?
There is a trend in society to blame “others” for the mistakes of an individual. If you choose rotten friends, then you will be a rotten person. If you grow up in a rotten neighborhood, then you are destined to be a rotten citizen. While this argument has its statistical merits, it avoids the principle of free will that resides in the human spirit. By admitting the difference between “rotten” and normal friends, there is indeed a value judgment here concerning what is correct and what is incorrect. In the current examination of attitudes and performance, there is an inherent suggestion that your performance should reach a certain standard, and that the prevailing attitude will either facilitate or deter the achievement of that standard.
So, what is the attitude of your co-workers? If they show up on time, are dressed in a way that doesn’t distract you or anger you, if they keep the conversation to work-related themes, (especially during times of stress) if they don’t play loud music that you hate, and if they help you out when you need assistance with a work-related problem, then that will affect your job performance in a good way, making it very easy for you to do a good job if you want to do a good job.
This “good” attitude on the part of your co-workers will make it harder for you to goof-off. If you call in sick because you wanted to catch the 49ers game over the weekend in San Francisco, they may register some disapproval on Monday morning because someone else had to do your weekly report. If you show up in gym clothes when the rest of the women in the office are required to wear sheer hose, then your comfort may be offset by their resentment, making it difficult for you to concentrate on the error report that came in regarding your recent reimbursement request. Their activity in maintaining the office procedures regardless of your disruption doesn’t make it impossible for you to continue messing up, however. You can do a really rotten job in spite of them as long as you are permitted to continue to come to work.
If the opposite is true, if you truly want to achieve the company’s stated goals, but you feel that the existing atmosphere is destroying your opportunity to do so, then this is a highly stressful, but not impossible situation for you. A culture that is surviving on minimal standards can drive out an annoying “goody goody” influence that cramps the style of an immature work force, but that is unlikely. If you truly want to achieve a high standard of job performance, then you will find support for it from an employer that appreciates your efforts and rewards them. The hidden test here, though, is that you can’t evaluate the worth of your fellow employees by your own standards. You cannot impose your own standards upon the workforce without causing more problems than you are worth. If the attitude of your co-workers is so different from your own style that you cannot disregard it enough to concentrate on what your job actually is, then you will be unable to sustain that job. You will be fired, probably for incompetence because the person that truly understands your job expectations never developed the rapport with you to explain what the job actually is.
It is usually the emotional response to values that affects job performance. It’s not so much that you “can’t” do Danny’s report after he called in without a good excuse; it’s more that you really don’t think it’s fair that you should have to. Even if your mother would agree with you, it may be Danny’s mother that is signing your paycheck, and she wants someone to get the work done, not judge her son. If you find that you are having a hard time with the prevalent behavior of your co-workers, then either accept the fact that you will have to put in some more time as the flunky, and muddle through it, or brush up your resume for a position with a more compatible environment.
