We have to be honest about the fact that fear is a major factor in many workplaces. We don't act the same at work as we do in other places. We don't speak with the same voice, far too often.
It is easy to spot the presence of fear in a workplace if you look for it. If your workplace is a healthy and trusting place, you can disagree with your manager. Of course, you must be respectful the way you would be with anyone else, but you can say "I have serious concerns about our plan -- here's why."
In an unhealthy workplace, you can't disagree with your manager -- not publicly. You have to zip your lip and go along with plans you know are crazy and self-destructive, in order to stay on your boss's good side. That's not good for your business, its customers or its shareholders, but you will do it anyway because you want to keep your job.
Fear has a negative, corrosive effect on everything we care about in business, from profits to customer satisfaction -- not to mention employee satisfaction!
Watch On Forbes:
If your workplace is healthy, you can ask these five questions without a qualm. In an unhealthy workplace, you wouldn't dare ask any of them!
The Five Most Dangerous Questions To Ask at Work
1. Why don't we talk about culture and energy in our company? Even when the air is thick with conflict and everyone can feel it, we don't talk about it -- why is that?
2. In our company we use processes that are inefficient and wasteful, as you have noted more than once in our conversations. Why are these inefficient processes still in place?
3. Why is there dissension and political strife among the managers in this company?
4. When we have missed our goals and we all know why -- either the goal was unrealistic, we didn't have the tools we needed or turnover kept us from hitting the target -- we still hear that the employees need to buckle down and work harder. Why do we pretend that all problems are employee problems when we know it isn't true?
5. How long will my employment at this company last?
If we examine these questions we can see the role that fear plays in keeping us quiet about important issues that need air time. In a toxic culture, you won't feel comfortable asking why culture itself is not a topic for conversation -- because you already know the reason!
You know it in your bones. Your leaders can't talk about culture because it's a culture of fear, and they themselves cannot acknowledge the fear in the air -- much less the fear they feel personally.
Bad processes slow businesses down, so we would think that it's every employee's job to talk about them. Yet we all know that in many organizations, bad processes persist because lower-level managers tell their bosses that the processes don't work but the higher-level managers don't want to hear it because it would cost time and money to evolve to a new process. The lower-level manager is muzzled and doesn't want to talk about it.
When leaders don't agree with one another, they can have a healthy debate. If they can't do that, then they stay in their offices instead and send poison-pen email messages zipping around the building, slicing their peers to shreds behind their backs. Leadership turmoil is a favorite topic of non-discussion in many unhealthy organizations.
Employees and their failings are popular topics in large and small companies, sometimes behind closed doors and sometimes out in the open. Deeper and more systemic issues are harder to talk about. It is easy to create an off-the-cuff incentive program to reward the employees for working harder.
It is more challenging to look at the root causes for productivity problems -- issues like an unclear or unrealistic plan, too much red-tape bureaucracy or a lack of cohesion between departments. Don't mention these issues in an unhealthy workplace unless you are ready to launch a job search!
The biggest "Don't you dare!" question is the question "How long will I be working here?" When you accept a new job, it's more than reasonable for you to wonder how long the job will last, but the biggest unspoken agreement in the working world is the agreement employees make not to ask about their job security.
Sign up here to get top career advice delivered straight to your inbox every week.
It makes no sense. We all have bills to pay. A consultant who comes in to help your company with a project knows how long he or she will be working on the project. They have security in the form of their consulting agreement. Regular employees have none.
We accept that when we take a position, but it's still quite bizarre that merely asking the question "How long do you folks think you'll need me?" is considered outrageous. You're not supposed to ask that question. You're supposed to work hard and take your chances.
That's the truly outrageous idea -- that in an era when long-term employment is becoming extinct, a working person's curiosity about the duration of his or her employment would be considered inappropriate.
It's time we found our voices at work and started to ask tough questions. The more you find your voice and use it, the stronger your voice will become. You don't have to be a self-employed person to run your own career. We all have to run our careers these days. We all have to start asking more "dangerous" questions!
