Passive-Aggressive Behavior at Work

15 Red Flags of Passive-Aggressive Behavior in the Workplace:

The passive-aggressive employee covertly disrupts office morale and corporate

productivity by chronically:

Avoiding responsibility for tasks.

Doing less when asked for more.
Missing deadlines.
Withholding important information.
Going over a boss’ head to make him or her appear incompetent or unresponsive.
Leaving notes or using e-mail to avoid face-to-face confrontation.
Ignoring the notes or e-mails left by others.
Complaining about office policies and procedures.
Arriving late.
Extending their lunch break.
Using sick days unnecessarily.
“Forgetting” or “misplacing” important documents.
Resisting suggestions for change or improvement.
Procrastinating.
Calling out coworkers in public settings, such as meetings or during presentations.
Some have compared confronting the behaviors of a passive-aggressive employee to
nailing Jello to a wall since the passive-aggressive individual reliably has
plausible explanations to justify any (and all) of the behaviors on the list.

8 Traits that Make the Office a Perfect Place for Passive-Aggressive Behavior

1. People spend a lot of their time there.

Other than the home—where most people spend between six and 10 hours of their time,
mostly sleeping—many adults spend more time at work than anyplace else. Whether
situational or chronic, passive-aggressive behavior is likely to come out wherever
a person spends a great deal of time.

2. Relationships tend to form wherever a person spends a great deal of time.

Whether in the course of business or over friendly lunches, enduring relationships

develop in most workplaces. And within relationships, passive-aggression can occur.

3. The professional atmosphere of most workplaces makes emotional expression

unacceptable.

Yet, even in a formal business environment, emotions stir over any number of things
—workload, “the big deal,” promotions, respect, and other very personal issues that
touch upon an individual’s self-worth. These heartfelt and personal emotions need
an outlet.

4. The hierarchy of most workplace cultures makes direct expression of anger seem
like insubordination.

An employee may feel that his or her boss has slighted her. But in most workplaces,
an individual does not have the freedom to tell the boss how they really feel
without risking their career. It is also true that a boss, frustrated by the
quality of a employee's work, would violate both written and unwritten policies by
giving that employee completely candid feedback. In the workplace, employees must
choose their words with extreme care—making it an ideal environment for passive
aggression.

5. The workplace hierarchy may resemble a dysfunctional home environment.

For a child whose primary caregiver was all-powerful and gave the child no recourse
for the direct expression of anger, a hierarchical workplace may trigger his or her
template for perceiving authority figures as hostile. Regardless of the accuracy of
the perception, the passive-aggressive employee will tend to respond as if any
authority figure in the workplace is the abusive adult from their childhood.

6. The heavy reliance on electronic communication provides an ideal cover for

passive-aggressive exchanges among coworkers.

Electronic communication has completely altered the way business people interact—
and the ways in which they transmit meaning. When it is possible to establish and
maintain big deals, major decisions, and important working relationships without
traditional personal contact, efficiency is won, but important messages may be lost—
or hidden.

7. The teamwork dynamic common in many workplaces can be a great venue for
obstructionism and loss of accountability.

The covert actions of one passive-aggressive team member can stop the whole show
and sabotage entire projects subtly enough that his or her responsibility is not
readily apparent or tenaciously justifiable.

8. It is often difficult to fire employees.

Human resources policies, designed with the best intentions—protecting workers—can

make it especially challenging to terminate a passive-aggressive employee. Picture
the intentionally inefficient worker who meets all minimum standards. If confronted,
he puts up a good, victim-inspired fight. He claims the boss just doesn’t like him
and is harassing his completely acceptable performance. Picture the disgruntled
supervisee who makes it a point to go over her boss’ head while the boss is away on
a business trip, or the spiteful coworker who “accidentally” demotes a colleague in
the cc line of a memo as a way of publicly slighting her. The passive-aggressive
employee is always armed with a plausible explanation for such behaviors and is
expert in casting himself in the role of victim to any angry accuser.

Do any of these passive-aggressive components characterize your work environment?

How does passive-aggressive behavior in your office impact your ability to
accomplish tasks and achieve goals? What effect does passive aggression have on
staff morale?