My staff won’t stop whining. Help!

Dear Aunty B,

It has been a horrible year for our business for all sorts of reasons and the economy hasn’t helped.

Anyway, my problem is that all our staff are grumpy and whingy. Anything is setting them off and I am sick of being the helpful optimistic shoulder when I feel like telling them to rack off and try unemployment for a change.

What do they think? It hasn’t been a hard year for me too? I know no one is ever going to feel sorry for the boss but gee, if I have one more person come up to me at work and complain I think I might grab their shoulders and shake them until their teeth rattle.

And that I think is the problem Aunty. I have been too nice to them because I have held them up through this hard year and felt a bit sorry for them and now we have this whiny culture.

And happy New Year Aunty by the way.

Over it

Dear Over it,

You are over it if you are at New Year already. Look, the last thing you want to do is join in with the whining. So stop worrying that they are whining and you are nice or whatever is filling your head.

What you have to do is change the thinking and the conversation to a problem solution format. They walk in and start complaining? Tell them you are only interested in solutions. When they tell you “no”, you say “don’t tell me no tell me how”.

When they are whining about something out of their control to fix, point out that solutions are underway and they are expected to take a mature, professional approach and not turn into whingy children when something stuffs up, which in a fast growing business always will. Make sure staff are also having a good rest over Christmas and that you celebrate the year no matter what the state of your finances.

Oh, and of course everyone cares about you. If you weren’t there who would pay their mortgages?

Be smart
Your Aunty B

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