Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
Workplaces Everywhere: Justin Stevens apologises to ABC staff after report finds workplace racism
Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) created by Spin Doctors of PR and Big Four of Consulting fame wherever they go … Bullying: it’s a loaded term that stains the reputation of anyone it’s levelled at. And these days, it’s levelled a lot. The righting of long-tolerated wrongs, or politically correct overreach?
ABC’s news director emailed staff on Thursday following internal allegations over experiences of racism at the broadcaster
The ABC news director, Justin Stevens, has apologised to staff after a “disturbing” report found some Indigenous and culturally diverse staff have experienced racism at the national broadcaster.
“These things should never happen,” Stevens said in an email to all news staff on Thursday.
“The ABC will not allow or tolerate any racism in the workplace. Ever. Our newsrooms, teams and workplace must be respectful, inclusive and welcoming at all times of all employees. No one should ever feel that they don’t belong at the ABC because of their cultural background.”
While Stevens did not single out a particular incident or person he said common issues included a lack of support, an inadequate complaints systems and online and social media abuse.
To anyone in News who has ever experienced any racism or bigotry in our workplace, current and former news employees, as director, news I would like to express my sorrow for that and make a heartfelt apology. I am sorry.”
The report was written by a group of ABC staff on the diversity committee, including digital forensics reporter, Kevin Nguyen, disability affairs reporter, Nas Campanella, and digital editor, Christina Zhou, and was based on interviews with 20 staff.
“The most disturbing aspect of the advisory group’s work was hearing accounts from employees from an Indigenous or culturally diverse background reporting experiences of racism and cultural insensitivity while working in our division,” Stevens said.
“Some feel they’re not welcomed into or embraced by the workplace and other team members as they ought to be. Some feel their voices are not heard in team discussions as they ought to be.
Look around the office or work Slack channels and chances are there is at least one bad apple in the barrel.
At least that is what one in four workers thinks, according to research from Atlassian that suggests bad apples can poison high-functioning teams to the core.
More than a quarter (26 per cent) of workers report having a bad apple on their team, and 13.6 per cent said the bad apple was their manager, a survey of more than 2000 workers in Australia and the US found.
Atlassian work futurist Dom Price says calling out bad apples could lead to a stronger workplace culture. Louise Kennerley
For Atlassian’s work futurist Dom Price, the research should be a huge wake-up call for most bosses.
“Whenever I work with companies, I ask them the same question: ‘did you hire idiots or did you create them?’ And I’ve got the same question for organisations with bad apples,” he said.
It was especially problematic when the bad apple was a manager or leader because of the trickle-down effect.
“If you think that a quarter of teams are struggling with someone who brings that team down and reduces their mojo, that’s not good, because if that team is 10 people, that is nine people who are negatively impacted,” Mr Price said.
From the interrupter and the mood killer to the idea thief, most people have worked with a bad apple at some point in their career.
“You’re negative, you cut everyone off, everyone’s ideas get poo-pooed, you ask a stupid question five minutes before the end of the meeting to derail everything,” Mr Price said. “They usually call themselves the devil’s advocate.”
.
But having a bad apple on the team is not all bad: the research found that teams with bad apples were more likely to be innovative in some areas.
“The weird side effect of having a bad apple in your team is, to some extent, the willingness to engage in conflict, and it creates an environment that forces a team to be more creative,” Mr Price said.
Despite this, it was key that people felt safe to call out bad apple behaviour, which Mr Price said could lead to a stronger workplace culture.
“A quarter of teams having bad apples could be fuelling the great resignation itself, but the problem is that people that leave are the good ones who don’t put up with it, and then you’re left with even more bad apples,” he said.
“The leaders who are thriving and the ones who are building great, sustainable teams are having that open dialogue with their teams, and they’re asking about ways they can do those things better, but bad apples aren’t looking for feedback, are they?”
Leaders need to be asking for constant feedback if they want to avoid the curse of the bad apple.
“Whenever I work with leaders, I regularly ask them: ‘what’s the best bit of feedback you’ve got recently?’ and I usually get met with silence,” he said.
Bosses should begin by asking their teams what is one thing they can do to improve how they work together.
“It costs nothing to ask,” Mr Price said. “It might hurt the ego a tiny bit but what you’re going to get is an absolute golden nugget where you can improve. And if you do it often, then it’s never a giant piece of feedback.”
The research also found that chief executives had an overinflated view about how effective their teams would be in the future.
“Most senior leaders have almost an equal and opposite view of what people on the ground are experiencing,” Mr Price said.
“I think there is a wake-up call for C-suite leaders, whether it be the great resignation or the war for talent or how we engage modern generations in the workforce.
“I think there’s a whole cohort of leaders where there’s a bit of ignorance as to what the reality is of how people are experiencing work right now.”
Natasha Boddy is Work & Careers reporter with The Australian Financial Review. She was previously a homepage editor and online producer. Connect with Natasha on Twitter. Email Natasha at natasha.boddy@afr.com
