S10E224: Why We Forgive Bad Behaviour At Work with Lisa Martello

And I have so many opinions around this that I just think are not nearly commonplace enough.

So like, I don't know how you two feel about this, but I think we are far too forgiving to the culprits of poor behaviour in the workplace.

assume positive intent or they probably don't realize they're doing it or they must be having a stressful time at home and you know oh well you need to give them all these detailed examples and you need to do all this prep and you need to hold a meeting and you need to be directing then you need to call it out at the moment then you need to do it after you know the victims um of poor behavior get so many actions and the perpetrators it's like they don't know And there's only, you only really have to have one meeting or moment where you have to talk to your boss or your colleague or your manager or whatever and try and be like, they were, they were really rude.

And the person's like, can you give some examples? It's not rocket science, is it? I think we are all adults.

We all absolutely know where the line of decorum is at work.

And I just think that it's become so, so normalised.

Do they know though? Yes, they fucking do, don't they? Of course they do.

And so does everybody else.

And all of the consequences are very much being felt.

Something else you said, Dale, which I think is so important that we don't see enough of either, is you talked about how projects and work can just be really mundane, right? And so much more boring and serious and stuffy than it needs to be, doesn't it?

You think like who you are at home and how

much you laugh and, you know, silly jokes you might make or whatever.

And then how often you sort of you walk into these meetings at work, like, you know, reporting meetings, right? Like the doom, the fear, like it's so real, isn't it? And like, I just find it so sad how...

So much of the kind of the fun just seeps, seeping out of projects, especially when you're in, you know, difficult times or delivery, you know, stages or whatever, when actually you probably need that so much more, don't you? Yeah.

A hundred percent.

I mean, you know, we all know it's been said so many times, there's so many books about it as well, where, you know, playing like a child is actually really good for you, like faithfulness in the workspace.

And, you know, although Val and I headed up a PMO together where it was really, really important for the company we were leading it in, there'd be times where we just really seriously just flicked like a switch into joking.

Like he'd be drawing stuff And we should do this, this, this.

And I'll be like, mate, you like triangles.

What's going on? And we just laugh.

You know what I mean? Like we're not even thinking about what's in the triangles.

So it's just, you know, having a bit of playfulness at work is really, really important.

But I think also coming back to what you said there just earlier, there's a balance though as well, isn't it? Because I often say sometimes it's understanding.

I use this at work.

So here's a bit of insider knowledge.