- Extreme thought process. E.g. All or Nothing thinking
- Overgeneralization
- Excessive Worrying
- Jumping to Negative Conclusions
- “Should” statements
- Labeling & Mislabeling
- Stonewalling
- Criticism and Contempt
- Impacts on physical health
- Cardiovascular disease
- Progression of diabetes
- Progression of cancer
- Onset of hypertension
- Impacts on relationships
- Impacts on mental health
Many of the items on the list represent our daily challenges. The message is, when any or several of these exceed our capacity for acceptable behavior, we need help. At that point, too, we would be the last person to recognize the problem. It is therefore important for supervisors and trusted coworkers to recognize the behaviors associated with “going overboard”.
Dysfunctionality at Work
Is the person in the wrong job?
- Someone who wanted to work with numbers; now is supervising people.
Does the job require the person to be difficult?
- Are they doing someone else’s dirty work?
What about the group dynamic?
- Is someone Prima Donna (Strong minded, runs rough shod over everyone else)?
ExamplesA departing flight from New York to Detroit was delayed two hours, and the tension among the passengers (almost entirely businessmen) was palpable. When they finally arrived in Detroit, a mysterious glitch with the boarding ramp made the plane stop about a hundred feet from the gate. Frantic about being late, passengers leapt to their feet anyway.
One of the flight attendants went to the intercom.
How could she most effectively get everyone to sit down so that the plane could finish taxiing to the gate?”
She did not announce, in a stern voice: “Federal regulations require that you be seated before we can move to the gate.”
Instead, she warbled in a singsong tone, suggestive of a playful warning to an adorable small child who has done something naughty but forgivable, “You’re staaan-ding!”
At that everyone laughed and sat back down until the plane had finished taxiing to the gate. And, given the circumstances, they got off the plane in a surprisingly good mood.