How Bagels Destroyed Trust In An Organization

by Aug 25, 2016

A friend of mine told me that his manager sent out an email that she was going to start doing bagel Mondays. He didn’t eat breakfast that following Monday because he thought a bagel would be at work waiting for him.

But, there were no bagels, and there never have been.

In fact, the manager just never brought bagels, and never mentioned it again.

It seems silly, but to be honest my friend was annoyed, if not even a little angry. It’s not that there are no piping hot bagels on Monday mornings, it’s that his manager said she’d do something and she didn’t. Couple that with the fact that she often doesn’t keep her word, and she’s quickly losing the trust of the team.

I bring this story up because I think it highlights a major point: If bagels can damage morale like that, think about how deep the damage to morale is when something happens (or doesn’t happen) that really actually matters.

Just food for thought… pun intended.

P.S. With every post I try to offer tips, tricks, worksheets, tools, job aids, scripts and other things you can use regularly to keep morale up. If there’s something you’d like to know more about, please message me and I’m happy to write a response!

For more articles on workplace environments, you can visit my blog at www.civilitypartners.com/blog

Do you know how much money chronically bad behavior costs your company? Spoiler alert – it’s a LOT higher than you want it to be. Download our data and worksheet to see how it’s costing your organization and what you can do to fix it.

 

About Catherine Mattice

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is President of consulting and training firm, Civility Partners, and has been successfully providing programs in workplace bullying and building positive workplaces since 2007. Her clients include Fortune 500’s, the military, several universities and hospitals, government agencies, small businesses and nonprofits. She has published in a variety of trade magazines and has appeared several times on NPR, FOX, NBC, and ABC as an expert, as well as in USA Today, Inc Magazine, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, and more. Catherine is Past-President of the Association for Talent Development (ATD), San Diego Chapter and teaches at National University. In his book foreword, Ken Blanchard called her book, BACK OFF! Your Kick-Ass Guide to Ending Bullying at Work, “the most comprehensive and valuable handbook on the topic.” She recently released a second book entitled, SEEKING CIVILITY: How Leaders, Managers and HR Can Create a Workplace Free of Bullying.

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