“Whistle While You Work” sung by the Seven Dwarves in the first ever full-length animated feature film, Snow White, still is prevalent today. I hear this phrase and I envision people upbeat and proud to sing the praises of what they do, where they work, and how they can help others, all while the activity of spreading positivity itself helps to pass the time.
No, I’m not referring to playing music in the workplace. Let me rant about that for a second. I’m all for piping in some evergreen tunes over the speaker system to break up the monotony of silence (or to drown out the detailed discussions of customer interactions.) With that said, let me tell you about one of my biggest pet peeves in the workplace. AirPods. When I see salespeople walking around with their AirPod in their ear all throughout the work day, listening to music, I don’t think it is a helpful tool to help pass the time, but a distraction. It makes them unproductive and unfocused. You can’t make calls or think about the best way to craft an email with your playlist filling your melon with non-stop lyrics. Listening to one’s own personal music through headphones or AirPods is a no go for me. This practice should be prohibited. Now old man Joe will go back into his cave and stop screaming at the younger generations, and I will continue with the real point of this blog.
I’m a big believer in positivity. Speak positivity out into the world and good things find their way back to you. (Like the little book, “The Secret”.) Complaining at work is like a yell. It causes chaos and commotion. It does not lend itself to passing time at work. Instead, it becomes an obstacle for you and others. Negativity that causes friction, steals focus, breeds bad blood, becomes cancerous, and kills the attention of the team needs to be annexed immediately. Just like on a plane where a child cries or a grown-up man baby or Karen shouts, it pulls everyone’s attention and is problematic.
A whistle is that sweet melody of speaking positive messages into the workplace. Talking about what you do in a hopeful, constructive way throughout the day. It makes the day go by faster and improves the mood of others. No one likes being around someone always shouting negativity. It is far better to hear those around you singing optimistic praises of their work and the place of business. This has an impact on morale, the hospitality your organization delivers to its guests, and your performance.
Surround your store with positive people. Employees who are optimistic when they take a lead, grab a call, up a customer, enter the door in the morning, and converse with others. Healthy debate, discussing one’s likes and interests, even arguing about sports teams are all generally acceptable (as much as we’d like all discussions to be about work, we have to be realistic). However, any talk about process, customers, sales, managers, coworkers, deals, deliveries, policies, pay or more should be encouraged, if discussed publicly, to be positive, and all unhappy talk should be done with management behind closed doors.
While this practice is something organizations should hope to instill in their employees, in the end, it is often up to each team member to make this their own personal mission. You will be shocked once you only fill your environment with positivity and encouragement how easy breezy every day becomes. It helps pass the time better, and reach previously unattainable goals.
