Who Knew? Yes, We All Need to Know the Important Effect of Griping on the Job

Editor’s Note: Happy New Year and welcome to January 2024. Here’s hoping that this year is a LOT better than 2023.

I’VE HAD A LOT OF JOBS and worked in many different workplaces, but I never heard anyone ever claim that one of the things we needed was more griping on the job.

I managed a lot of people in a lot of newsrooms where griping was part of the daily chatter. It was generally, if grudgingly, accepted, but nobody I worked with EVER claimed that more griping would be good for the culture and overall workplace environment.

That’s why I just had to read this story in CIO.com titled Workplace griping: The key release valve your culture lacks.

Venting helps relieve workplace pressure

AS IT TURNS OUT, this is a story that’s hip deep in the debate about remote and hybrid work because it makes the case that griping is really just a form of venting — and that’s good for workplace culture and especially so if you have remote workers. As the article describes it:

“Venting serves the same purpose in organizational dynamics that the relief valve serves on a pressure cooker: It keeps the pressure at a level low enough that the whole apparatus doesn’t explode.

It’s a cumulative effect. One employee who needs to vent and has no one to vent to makes the aggregate workforce an increment crabbier. Two? A bit more.

The effect is non-linear, and there’s no tracking metric that lets managers know crankiness is reaching critical mass. And yet, as aggravations accumulate and venting opportunities are harder to find, employees’ ability to collaborate slowly erodes.”

In other words, a lot of workplace practices — like griping and venting — have gotten lost in the transition to off-site workers and a digital workforce.

Again, the article gets to the heart of the issue:

“… On-screen interactions are a pale substitute for what in-person relationships make possible. Like … bumping into a buddy when something has annoyed you and you need to vent. It’s a leadership training blind spot.”

Remote work didn’t used to be cool

HERE’S MY TAKE: I know the ups and downs of remote work because I have been doing that since 2010.

Yes, I was remote long before remote was cool.

I’ve been asked a lot about that, and most questions revolve around how hard it was to work at home after spending the better part of the 30 years in a busy office environment.

It took some weeks to adjust to working from home, but once I did, I found that what I missed most was  daily interactions with people. I’m not talking about formal meetings, but the unscheduled encounters where you bump into someone while getting coffee, or when a co-worker stops by with a question.

Those daily interactions are an accepted part of the workplace, but in a larger sense, they were critical to the workplace culture because they were a shared experience that pulled all of us together around the larger goals of the organization.

And yes, venting was a frequent part of many of those daily encounters.

The article also addresses that:

” … the leadership team (needs to) recognize that venting about frustrations isn’t just okay; it’s an essential ingredient for a healthy workforce. … 

Link venting to the biggest challenges faced by those who lead and manage a virtual or hybrid workforce: maintaining and fostering the desired business culture, and fostering the interpersonal trust-based relationships among employees we expect to work effectively in teams.

Do that and, when it comes to venting, you’ll be halfway home. Bumping into a confidant will probably have to remain a fond memory of a more organic past. But at least employees will have some friends they can ping when a frustration needs to be aired.”

People are made to connect together

LAST THING: Although the debate around remote work seems to revolve around people who really want to continue off-site, that was never an issue for me.

I would have preferred to work in an office, but my company was moving the office from Irvine, California to Chicago, Illinois. As I was weighing the pros and cons of making the move, I got a job offer from a guy who had a virtual company that would allow me to stay in SoCal.

It was a pretty easy call.

Hybrid work wasn’t an option, although that would have been the best thing for me then as it would be for me today. I believe that working around other people helps build a stronger company culture.

THERE’S A SMART LADY who blogs, and speaks, and does other such things in the HR/talent management space. I’ve known her for for quite a while and she’s really good at it.

However, she also believes that my memories that people in an organization are better when they work around others is something that may have worked in the past but doesn’t in today’s workplace. And, she thinks the times I remember were probably not all that great anyway.

Smart lady that she is, I still think she’s wrong on this.

People are made to connect with other people, and nowhere is that more evident than when we work together and connect in person. That is as true now as it was in my grandfather’s time.

I think a lot more of us will recognize that in 2024.

Other trends and insights … 

And if you need a little AI to start the year … 

• 10 Spicy Generative AI Predictions for 2024 (From A.Team)
• AI in 2024: Five trends workers need to know (From BBC Worklife)
• 5 ways ChatGPT can save you time in the New Year (From ZDNet.com)

One more thing … When it comes to leadership, Less is More

I’VE BEEN HOLDING ON to this article since late November for a variety of reasons, but mostly, because I didn’t want it to get lost in the holiday season scramble that so many of us fall prey too.

It’s from a guy named John Millen who I’ve never heard of, but he is someone I’m going to follow from here on out.

Here’s how he describes himself on his website at johnmillen.com:

“John is CEO of the Reputation Group, a leadership communication company in Columbus, Ohio, far from the sunny beaches of Southern California where he grew up. Since founding the company in 2004, he has worked with more than 7,000 leaders, from CEOs to emerging leaders.

John has more than 25 years of communication experience, including serving as VP of Communications for Fortune 100 companies Nationwide and The Hartford. He began his career working in sales at Procter & Gamble.

His practice helps leaders in complex, highly regulated industries, including financial services and insurance, pharmaceuticals and consulting, among others.”

His article is headlined like this — Lincoln’s Lesson for Leaders: Less is More.

Yes, less management may be the right answer

THIS INTRIGUED ME, because in all the many words I’ve read about management over the course of my lifetime, I have rarely found ANYONE who makes to case for less management being the answer to whatever needs to be fixed.

His focus is on Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It’s one of the most famous speeches ever given, and John Millen finds a number of leadership lesson from this 160-year-old 19th Century speech that are relevant to us today as we struggle with 21st Century leadership.

Here’s how he sets it up when he writes:

“What (Lincoln) said, and how long he took to say it, gives leaders today a valuable lesson: even on the most momentous of occasions, Less is More.

In Gettysburg, Americans fought what remains the bloodiest battle on U.S. soil. After three days, of the 160,000 men who fought, one third lay dead. The battle was a turning point in the Civil War, and the continued life of the United States.

Most Americans know little of Gettysburg, except that President Abraham Lincoln gave a famous speech there.

Lincoln’s short speech (printed at the end of this article) has echoed through the ages and should give today’s leaders insight on how to communicate with impact and meaning.”

4 lessons from Lincoln’s remarkable speech

THE MOST AMAZING THING is that Lincoln was NOT the featured speaker at Gettysburg that day. As Wikipedia notes, Lincoln was there for “the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the afternoon of November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated Confederate forces in the Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War’s deadliest battle.”

The featured speaker was Edward Everett, who was considered “one of the great American orators of the antebellum and Civil War eras.” But Everett’s speech at Gettysburg today is rarely read, probably because it “was 13,607 words long and lasted two hours,” according to Wikipedia.

Lincoln’s speech was brief 271 words and lasted for two minutes.

John Millen found “four valuable lessons for leaders from Lincoln’s remarkable speech,” and the four are well worth reading if you are interested.

And by the way, I think what John Millen wrote is shorter than the set-up of his article that I have written here.

I didn’t make being more succinct one my resolutions for the year, but maybe I should have.

Readers: I’ve written a version of this weekly wrap-up for more than 20 years — from Workforce.com to TLNT.com to Fuel50. Now, I’m doing it here. Let me know what you think at johnhollon@yahoo.com.