The High Cost of Bad Moods (Barry Goldberg On Leadership)

Research in behavioral science is showing that there is a trend toward higher irritability in the workplace — especially in the United States — and it has been more pronounced over the last 24 months. In short, more of us spend more time in a bad mood at work than ever before. There are even healthy, if snarky, internet memes on the subject. In one, the comic strip character Calvin howls, “I’m in a very bad mood, so nobody’d better mess with me today, boy!!” Bad moods are generally the result of higher stress, lower satisfaction, elevated levels of fear (even if we do not have something specific to be afraid of) and an increase in feelings of powerlessness. Bad moods are also contagious, according to Scientific American. And in a business, bad moods are expensive. Consider these examples pulled from a recent organizational psychology study. • The senior vice president of a bank’s branch operations is unhappy with a decision his boss made and takes his irritability into a meeting with a branch manager. She leaves the meeting feeling tentative and concerned for her job. When she declines to make a reasonable accommodation for a longtime customer, the customer’s family business moves to a competing bank. • A surgeon with a reputation for being unapproachable arrives for surgery in a particularly bad mood. Surgical staff say nothing when the surgeon opens the wrong leg on a patient. • A plant manager, angry about budg...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news