A few years ago, I was juggling several workplace emergencies when an employee burst into my office. I could tell something was wrong with her. Had a family member died, a work accident occurred, or some kind of office theft taken place?
“We have too much toilet paper!” she shouted in outrage.
In almost any scenario, having too much toilet paper is not a problem. Perhaps it’s a storage challenge but one that is much better than having no toilet paper. But on this day, for this person, toilet paper served as the epicenter of what was wrong with the organization.
Dealing with complaints is a part of life, especially on the job. It’s very likely that your company is understaffed, a computer system is too old, and your customers aren’t very bright.
But while complaining can bring awareness to a problem, it can also become a large part of an organization’s culture. Before long, pointing out problems becomes the problem. It’s easy to always comment on what is wrong but never take action to fix things.
You want to encourage a solutions based workplace. Tell your team that if they see something that is wrong, then try to come up with a solution. Then they can bring both the problem and the solution to management.
Managers often are juggling multiple deadlines so you’ll likely get a better response if you supply them with a possible answer rather than just add to their to-do list with a complaint.
It is easier to just complain about a problem and not consider solutions. But under that model, will things get better?
