Students are struggling to find internships and recent graduates are struggling to find entry level jobs, thanks to the many recession-induced cutbacks employers have been making. Those candidates who are fortunate enough to land an internship or entry level job may find themselves in work environments that are less pleasant than they'd expected. Even if they end up with companies where layoffs were avoided, cuts in benefits and perks have left people feeling a little discouraged and a lot expendable. Enter the manager with a positive attitude who says, "We'll get through this. Everything will be all right." Is that wrong? Sadly, there are some who would say, yes.
"Some firms do try to hide economic reality behind the thin veil of a dime store positive thinking charade. What the leadership lacks in business acumen they make worse by treating their employees as idiots," said Rick Chess, managing partner of Chess Law Firm, PLC. "Faith that leadership has a clue as to the problems and have developed a rational plan of action is critical to rally the troops to succeed. Where leadership abuses their relationship with employees, any chance for faith/energy/effort is thrown out the window. Time to get your resume updated!
"Allowing a team to wallow in Eeyore negatives is equally destructive. Until the day there is a filing for bankruptcy, and even then until the day the doors are finally closed, there is a way for the individual employee and the team they are on to make a meaningful difference in the lives of customers and prospects and the community. The company may well fail, but that does not mean the individual employee must fail."
"The choice between pessimism and optimism is a false choice. Optimism causes us to miss facts, while pessimism causes us to descend into doom and gloom, neither of which is very helpful in the work environment," said Lisa Earle MacLeod, sales and leadership consultant and author of The Triangle of Truth: The Surprisingly Simple Secret To Resolving Conflicts Large and Small.
"The real duality we need to embrace is facts AND faith. The organizations that overcome obstacles are the ones in which the leaders are courageous enough to stand up and say - 'These are facts, things aren't good, we've lost market share, the economy is shrinking, etc. AND I have faith that we will be OK, because I'm confident that as a team we we can get through this.' Positive thinking isn't a ploy when you're honest about the facts," she concluded.
"In terms of productivity, connecting employees to the broader business issues of the company has been difficult in corporate settings for a variety of reasons, too long to describe here. If being an Eeyore means being direct and impactful in how employees learn from management about what's going on in a market place and industry downturn and how their performance can help the company meet or exceed performance goals, then Eeyore behavior is the way to go," said Barbara Poole, founder and CEO of Employaid. "And if results are achieved through more productivity, then attitudes change because the company is on a positive track. Employees feel pride and responsibility for the heavy lift that is necessary to stay afloat in rocky times. And then a charade of Tigger behaviors isn't necaessary at all - because positive feelings permeate the business."
Ethical and Green marketing expert and author, Shel Horowitz, believes that it's better to strive to have a happy life in general, which makes sense. If you only "put on a happy face" when you go into work and remove when you go home again, then your positive attitude is just a "charade." "Shortly after college, I made a decision about 25 years ago that I was going to have a happy life. It was a very good decision," said Horowitz. "I find that not only do I not get ruffled by stuff that would have felt like a big crisis in my younger days, but that good things come my way, in abundance. That doesn't mean I'm happy every minute of every day, but I'm happy most of every day.
"Some specific things I do to keep my happy equilibrium:
* Get outside every day, even if the weather is terrible, or even if I'm at an all-day conference where all I can do is grab five urban minutes between sessions. At home, our Husky-Shepherd "personal trainer" ensures that we spend a minimum of 20 minutes outside (that's for heavy rainstorms or below 20-degree weather)--usually closer to 45 minutes or an hour.
* Make a priority of dinner as a family.
* See a lot of live music and theater (much of it as an usher, which doesn't cost anything).
* Don't dwell on what we can't change--like our shrinking investment portfolio. We live on the money we earn from working, and by the time we retire, today's market will be long gone.
* Do dwell on what we can change. Here's my favorite example--several years ago, a developer announced a plan to desecrate our local mountain with 40 luxury homes gong up to the ridgeline. While all the 'experts' said 'this is terrible but there's nothing we can do,' my wife and I organized the citizen grassroots movement that stopped the project flat in just 13 months. Positive attitude had *a lot* to do with that victory."
Some may agree with Horowitz's philosophy and some may not, but he certainly makes one important point: Positive attitude alone isn't enough. It needs the help of equally positive action, like the "grass roots movement" he and his wife organized to save their local mountain. The same principle can be applied in the workplace.
"The people who believe employees are distracted by positive thinking are worried that people will 'lose touch with reality' and not address problems," said Erika Oliver, motivational speaker and author of Happy Crap: The Power of Positive Assumptions. "The truth is people are better equipped to address problems and identify potential threats when they are in a positive, healthy state of mind. Ensconced in negativity, people pull inward and often engage in catastrophic thinking, making the situation appear worse."
Pollyanna and her father may have been on to something with their "Glad Game." Fans of Oprah Winfrey will know that she has a similar philosophy, often encouraging her audiences to keep gratitude journals in which they list at least five things they have to be grateful for each day. Taking into consideration how many people are out of work, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being grateful to have a job or internship, even if it's odious. Find something about it to love like the fact that there's always free coffee in the kitchen, that the lunch hour is paid, or that nobody got laid off so the workload is the same.
When you write your resume (with or without advice and professional help), who is your target audience? Who are you trying to satisfy?
