Is Your Office Sometimes a "Sick" Environment

My seven month old was sick last week.


Nothing serious, but nothing fun either. Some combination of teething/stomach bug. (I had never even heard of the word "teething" until I had my daughter.)

Looking back, it was amazing remembering the ripple effect that it had on our household. (Readers with kids can begin nodding) When she's sick, she understandably doesn't sleep well. This means less sleep for mom and dad. And the snowball starts. Being more tired, you're less likely to pick up or answer the phone, pay bills, do dishes or any of the other household tasks. Exercise gets pushed to the backburner.

The snowball continues outside of the house. Daycare isn't a big fan of having sick kids on-site, so you take turns staying home with her. Deadlines are tougher to reach at work and emails go unanswered. Bosses (you know who you are) receive lines like "I'll get to that next week!"

All in all, we didn't have just a sick baby, we had a household that was "sick" because it wasn't very productive, bordering on dysfunctional. This snowball effect is not unlike what goes on in business, as bad management decisions and negative employees could have poor impact on the effectiveness of an organization, making it dysfunctional as well.

Below is a link to an article about the Top 25 Signs of a Dysfunctional Workplace:

http://tinyurl.com/2p9x6h

Ok, so some of these are a little far-fetched. So to help quantify how your company applies, I created the following completely scientific grading scale.



How many of these signs have you experienced at your work palace? (Not a typo)


0 Sign a long-term contract ASAP

1-10 Take your boss or team-members out to lunch. Ask for honest feedback and suggestions. I'm sure it won't solve the problems right away, but its gotta help.

11-20 More drastic action is necessary. A task force and regular meeting time to discuss concerns that employees and management have.

21 + My phone should have rang already telling me you're looking for another job!