. When Fear Strikes the Workplace by Tom Terez Did you see all those rats?" My friend John was remarking on the latest cringe-inducing scene from TV's "Fear Factor." If you've seen the show, you know how it works: Contestants face a series of nerve-rattling, stomach-turning activities, and the winner walks off with big bucks. John couldn't get over the rat scene. "Each person got strapped in a pit and had to stay there for four minutes with hundreds of crawling, nibbling rats. It was terrible." He started laughing nervously. "That's how I feel when I'm at work, like I'm in a rat pit," he said. "It's that scary." Over the years, John has told me all about the organization where he works. It's a market-research firm known for its high-IQ workforce, but among insiders, it's seen as a place where threats and punishment are routinely used by managers to "get things done." There was the time John got scolded, grade-school style, for taking a devil's advocate look at the boss's suggested methodology for an upcoming project. There was the time he and several coworkers got a month of silent treatment from their manager after collaborating with people on another project team. There was the time they were told to meet an outlandish deadline, "or else." There was the time -- well, let's just say there have been lots of times. John has way too much company. In my ongoing focus groups and informal conversations, I hear countless stories about fear-filled workplaces. One person called his boss Freddy -- as in Freddy Krueger, from "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Mr. Krueger had slashed his way to a senior management position, and he used his new authority to stick his least-favorite employees with dead-end assignments. When people saw the boss approaching, they would announce, "He's baaaack." It was their one way to lighten up an otherwise oppressive situation. Another person described the fear in her workplace by quoting from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." She and her colleagues did their best to keep away from several key (and apparently raven-like) managers. It was a closed-door culture. Suddenly there came a tapping...at my chamber door. I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting... This is no way to have a totally engaged and productive workforce, that's for sure. According to the American Institute of Stress, 40 percent of worker turnover is the result of job stress, and some one million workers are absent each workday because of stress-related complaints. Sure, some of the stress is unrelated to work or workplace fear, but cut these numbers in half and they're still staggering. Psychologists have long known the impact of positive and negative "affect," or mood. A positive affect has been shown to pump up creativity, while a negative affect stifles it and leads to mistrust, cynicism, isolation, and competition. Not exactly the stuff we want in our high-performance organizations, is it? Fear also writes its own version of reality. At data-driven companies where fear runs rampant, spreadsheets routinely get tweaked and twisted into "acceptable" shape. I've heard all about this in my interviews with well-meaning people who will do just about anything to escape the boss's wrath. So how do you stamp out fear? Well, first let's come to grips with reality. There are some fear-mongering types who are awfully hard to work with no matter what you do. The best approach is to try to understand why they are that way, and use any insights from this to manage the relationship accordingly. A bit of empathy, for example, can go a long way. If the boss is under chronic deadline pressure and you are too, perhaps you can commiserate. If you're both frustrated with edicts from on high, again, try venting together. This isn't about coddling or caving in; it's about finding common ground. If you think the fear relates to a lack of communication -- say, you and your colleagues are fearful of some impending and unspoken change, or you're concerned about certain goals and fear the consequences of falling short -- open a dialogue with a manager who likely knows the scoop. You'll have to initiate it, and it might feel as comfortable as an emergency visit to the dentist. But the right questions might yield information that allays fears, and again, you might achieve some common ground. Ideally, try to make the dialogue an ongoing process. This is especially important when rumors are swirling around the organization. We've all played that grade-school game where someone secretly decides on a phrase and whispers it to the next person, and the next, and the next. Reality gets pretty distorted, doesn't it? Don't settle for the latest version of the story. Approach people who might know the facts, and ask a few questions to get at the truth. Managers have to be especially mindful of what their verbal and nonverbal messages are saying. If key managers declare a strong commitment to work/life balance, yet the only people being promoted are those who work endless hours, there's liable to be a low-grade fear among people who don't. Don't cover up reality with misleading rhetoric, just because you think it's what people want to hear. When analyzing problems, developing ideas and improvements, and making decisions, involve more people. There's no better way to prevent unfounded fears. Co-creators can become a sort of "truth squad." Last, the most challenging of all: Look at how your organization is ultimately managed. Is there a quest for control based on all sorts of rules and decrees? Do managers play "gotcha" with employees, eagerly catching them when a rule is broken? Are performance evaluations and promotions used to reward people who are simply good at pleasing the boss? And are you doing any of these things? If so, heed these words from Edmund Burke: "No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as does fear." ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Terez (TomTerez.com) is an international consultant and frequent speaker on organizational performance (BetterWorkplaceNow.com) and personal excellence (InnerBest.com) Copyright 2001 Crain Communications, Inc. Copyright © 2008 Tom Terez Workplace Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 21444, Columbus, Ohio USA 43221-0444. Tel. 614-488-9721. Online Contact Form Home | Ideas and Insights | Improvement Tools | White Papers | Reprint Center | Talks, Workshops, Consulting | E-Letters | Contact | For Clients Visit our other sites:...TomTerez.com...InnerBest.com BetterWorkplaceNow.com, Better Workplace Now, TomTerez.com, InnerBest.com, and Inner Best are trademarks of Tom Terez Workplace Solutions, Inc.