I was thinking about the unpleasant things I've encountered in various workplaces. In my experience, there are few things I find more repugnant than explicit, blatant negative reinforcement.

I am reminded of a scene from The Hudsucker Proxy:

Mail Room Orienter: You punch in at 8:30 every morning, except you punch in at 7:30 following a business holiday, unless it's a Monday, then you punch in at 8 o'clock. Punch in late and they dock you.

Incoming articles get a voucher, outgoing articles provide a voucher. Move any article without a voucher and they dock you.

Letter size a green voucher, oversize a yellow voucher, parcel size a maroon voucher. Wrong color voucher and they dock you!

6787049A/6. That is your employee number. It will not be repeated! Without your employee number you cannot get your paycheck.

Inter-office mail is code 37, intra-office mail 37-3, outside mail is 3-37. Code it wrong and they dock you!

This has been your orientation. Is there anything you do not understand, is there anything you understand only partially? If you have not been fully oriented, you must file a complaint with personnel. File a faulty complaint and they dock you!

Perhaps the examples I've seen have not been as bad as that, but I sometimes wonder why an enterprise would want to focus on misbehavior and punishment. How many of us have heard: "Do this or you will be dinged at review time"? I have, and I cringed when I heard it.

I suppose I'm a dreamer. I expect a modern workplace to focus on accomplishment and achievement - not failure and punishment.

Other People's Habits: How to Use Positive Reinforcement to Bring Out the Best in People Around You author: Aubrey C. Daniels asin: 007135915X