“Good Morning  and Welcome …”. This will be the most happy and positive welcome any person will want at any time . Being in a positive and happy environment during work will ensure great work culture and build great trust on self , peers, subordinates, superiors and over all the company- it will help all grow.

Unfortunately, that is always not the case. There are times when the positive  outlook vanishes and it is replaced by a negative and hostile work atmosphere. First let's try to understand, what exactly is a negative work  attitude and do Indian courts have any respite to such behaviour. Is there any place where employers can feel safe for their actions?

The most common and basic negative attitude is when the  person’s Morale is down and the entire focus is distorted or lacks focus to work. Going forward, we often find these accompanied traits during negative attitude-

Resentment is often accompanied by bad mouthing. If a leader is not able to control that attitude in the beginning and tries to ignore resentment, grapevine  or moonlighting is  triggered thereby, creating a hostile environment to the team and towards the manager.

Absenteeism also demotivates the team and the overall performance. Negativism  leads to  frequent absenteeism and  nobody wants to put up this kind of attitude in their work. This might lead   sometimes to the  negative employee trying to find greener pastures at the company's expense. 'Negative Nannies' are always loathed. No one wants to deal with such persons, as productivity greatly gets affected. This in turn hampers client satisfaction and other employee engagement activities.

These negative traits at work lead to less profitability in the long run and also become a liability to the company.can work pressure be blamed for the bad attitude that they portray?

Here we need to accept a few things  before judging a person negatively- maintain the Respect and worth of the individual. Always have behavioural competencies in place and also keep the company policy in place as to what is acceptable and not acceptable behaviour. They are not doing anything illegal but are doing inappropriate things".

So, if a positive attitude can be a criteria for gaining a job, the opposite can surely be a reason to lose a job. We need to understand that,If there is no public money involved, the owner who is risking his life and property to trade or venture must be given the option to recruit the best person available and also keep those people who sync well with company attitude.

The Workplace are encouraged not to  put up with negative behaviour or negativity at work place  because they

• Affects morale and thereby  brings down teamwork and ultimately productivity.
• With negative people around, there are  more chances of  conflicts and managers or the supervisors need to spend more time resolving conflicts rather than running the show.
• Negative people add the burden of hidden cost by minimal output with more wastage of time and resources.
• At times negative people become dissatisfied with the entire system or turn hostile and lead to client dissatisfaction.

There is a flip side to Negative People, they may not always be a hindrance to the work allocated. It is  that they are not people with an accommodative attitude, but they may be excellent in work and revenue generation. 

Unfortunately, not all negative people are good, some create hindrance, do not want to learn, question the company Policy, bully their peers,disrespect others, disturb or  even assault coworkers,  may not be  punctual, prevent work progress and affect the overall team and company performance.(M/S.Hindustan Unilever Ltd vs The Presiding Officer on 25 September, 2019 W.P.No.33610 of 2013( Madras HC))

Negativity can take many form, Sometimes the person might take it by emotions like rudeness, yelling, shunning, mobbing, gossiping or on extreme side refusing to talk to or acknowledge others, harassing others by various means, or resort to incessant complaining to supervisors, not adhering to or ignoring directives and  most commonly slow working.

The biggest hindrance is, can such a person because of their  attitude be removed from employment?Are there any laws pertaining to the same? with emerging workplace bullying as the result of negative people who ultimately end employers in trouble. Most of the Labour Tribunals are Employee friendly with little or less protection to employer.Thankfully, Laws are being made to protect the interest of the employers too and Company Employment Rules mandate strict adherence, which explicitly discourage any behaviour like yelling, shunning, mobbing, gossiping, refusing to talk to or acknowledge others, harassing, ignoring directives, and slow working. 

As a positive note,the law makers understand the need and have developed the  INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT (STANDING ORDERS). The Central Rules gives a List of behaviour that can  be mentioned as Negative Attitude.These guidelines are applicable even to an IT company, BPO, KPO and other similar  industries.   1Section 3 of the INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT (STANDING ORDERS)  makes it mandatory to submit to the authority a draft by the employer of standing rules proposed in their organization. Karnataka has made it compulsory for all BPO and KPO and the state Kerala has declared all commercial establishments as industry. This applies to IT, ITES too.

The CENTRAL RULES are applicable to central government industrial establishments. But to bring in uniformity, all the State Governments have come up with similar enactments with similar clause defining misconduct: 

1. Wilful insubordination or disobedience, whether alone or in combination with other, to any lawful and reasonable order of a superior.
2. Theft, fraud or dishonesty in connection with the employer’s business or property.
3. Wilful damage to or loss of employer’s goods or property.
4. Taking or giving bribes or any illegal gratification.
5. Habitual absence without leave of absence without leave for more than ten days.
6. Habitual late attendance.
7. Habitual breach of any law applicable to the establishment.
8. Riotous or disorderly behaviour during working hours at the establishment or any act subversive of discipline.
9. Habitual negligence or neglect of work.
10. Frequent repetitions of any act or omission for which a fine may be imposed to a maximum of two percent of the wages in a month. 
11. Striking work or inciting others to strike work with another or other in contravention of any lawful and reasonable order of a superior.
12. Striking work or inciting others to strike work in contravention or the provisions of any law, or rule having the force of law.
13. Engaging in trade within the premises of the industrial establishment.
14. Habitual breach of any rules or instructions for the maintenance and running of any department of the cleanliness of any portion of the premises of the industrial establishment.

The central and the state Rules are required to ensure all the employees are given a fair chance. Option is also given to the employer to safeguard the interest of the employee.Instead of displaying empathy and putting up with bad behaviour, the Employer can also create and utilize a Unemployment Fund so that the employee may not be in dire straits once out of job.

As per the requirement,the companies must have self improvement and self help programs which will ultimately improve the work culture of the organization. Many companies follow Performance improvement Program (PiP) to accommodate the employee and to give them a chance to perform. Apart from this,the employer can always go for an Employee counselling session  or work out an improvement plan with the employee.

Over and above empathy and similar traits of emotional intelligence can  reduce misconduct to a certain extent.

Having said that, if the employer still feels that the employee is not scaling up and needs to let them off for the betterment of the other team members and for the Company- An Golden handshake is a MUST!!

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