Passive-aggressive behavior can turn a well-functioning workplace into a cauldron of toxicity if left unaddressed. But many employees feel they and their colleagues lack the soft skills to address passive aggression effectively.
The Impact of Soft Skills on Passive Aggressiveness
“Passive-aggressive behavior is a pattern of indirectly expressing negative feelings instead of openly addressing them,” explains Daniel K. Hall-Flavin, MD, in a post for the Mayo Clinic. “There’s a disconnect between what a person who exhibits passive-aggressive behavior says and what he or she does. For example, someone who engages in passive-aggressive behavior might appear to agree—perhaps even enthusiastically—with another person’s request. Rather than complying with the request, however, he or she might express anger or resentment by failing to follow through or missing deadlines.”
Remote and Hybrid Work Diminishing Soft Skills
As millions of Americans continue to work remotely across the country, there is fear among many organizations that so much time spent out of the physical office and away from its associated human interactions has led to a decrease in soft skills and a rise in toxic behaviors such as passive aggression.
E-learning firm Go1, in collaboration with OnePoll, recently surveyed 2,000 U.S. employees and uncovered some interesting findings on how these workers view their existing soft skills and what they think they need to enhance them.
Survey Points to Specific Impacts
Some key findings of the survey, as reported by Go1, include:
- Data shows that 71% of employees believe passive-aggressive coworkers would benefit from appropriate soft skills training.
- Respondents said time management (53%), communication (50%), and problem-solving (47%) were the most important.
- Employees said they need to feel more empowered to educate coworkers on better ways to communicate (74%), settle passive-aggressive situations (56%), and motivate others to maintain a positive culture (52%).
The Bottom Line
Passive-aggressive behavior can become extremely toxic in any workplace, and employees already recognize the need to combat such behavior with soft skills training. Therefore, HR departments should take care to identify passive-aggressive behavior and tackle it early on before its negative impacts become pervasive.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.