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Parent Category: Lower-Intermediate News Lessons

Category: Business Lessons

Written by Chris Cotter

There is an old idiom: It only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. It can be applied to many situations, and a new report uses the idea in business. "One bad apple," or one bad employee, can harm the atmosphere of an office. An employee with a negative attitude, such as someone who complains a lot or doesn't work hard, brings stress to his coworkers.

Unfortunately, negative behavior is much stronger than positive behavior. As a result, the negative employee affects the office more than several positive employees. In fact, one negative employee makes others feel negative, and then more and more employees become unhappy as time continues. Over time, the whole office is negative. The research was conducted by the University of Washington.

In order to fix the problem, companies must take care of negativity immediately. For example, the employee who is a bad apple should work alone so he doesn't have much contact with other people in the office. He shouldn't work on projects with other people. Of course, effective hiring is a better solution. If the manager or Human Resources Department can identify a negative person, then they shouldn't hire him. The report recommended training managers to see negativity, and also to give personality tests in the interview.