咨询公司Creative Energy Options的营销总监帕蒂•肖尔搬家需要花一个月的时间，所以，她申请将宠物狗带到公司位于宾夕法尼亚州怀特港的办公室。公司总裁西尔维娅•拉斐尔回忆说，当时，大家都非常热心。但没过多久，就有一名员工开始抱怨，称那只名为雷的混血柯利牧羊犬总是在她办公室门口转悠，让她不得安宁。

    肖尔试着把雷限制在办公室的另外一边，但它却总是缠着那名员工。拉斐尔说：“后来，有两名员工告诉我：‘她抽屉里有宠物饼干，而且总是趁人不注意的时候，用饼干喂狗。’这可真够阴险的。”

    针对她的消极对抗行为，拉斐尔与她当面对质，但得到的回答却让她瞠目结舌：她说她只不过是同情这只狗。之后，这名员工又做了些不够光明磊落的事，另外也是由于绩效问题，拉斐尔最终不得不把这名问题员工辞退。

    她说：“消极对抗型的人当面同意你的观点，却可能在背后给你一刀。有时候，这样的员工确实让人无计可施……只能请他们走人。”

    消极对抗的员工对于上司和同事而言都是最严峻的挑战。他们的行为难以识别，要想改变更是难上加难。但如果不解决问题，消极对抗的行为可能会蔓延开来，在公司内形成一种阳奉阴违、沉默对抗的氛围。

    乔治•布莱特是一名顾问，并著有《新官上任百日行动计划》（The New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan）一书。他说：“消极对抗就像癌症一样，非常隐蔽。如果你对它视而不见，那就意味着默许，之后就会传染到其他人。处方很简单，在它发作之前就把它消除掉。

发现症状

    开会迟到，还坐在后排跟同事窃窃私语，这都是典型的消极对抗行为。其中更典型的是，某位员工错过了一件大事，结果却声称那是因为自己有更重要的事情要办，比如要去见客户等等。

    布莱特认为：“他们的意思其实是说：‘我确实跟你和团队承诺过的一些事情，但我并没有真地打算去做，因为还有比你们更重要的人。’”

    During a month-long household move, Patty Shore, director of marketing at Creative Energy Options, asked to bring her dog to the consulting firm's White Haven, Pa. offices. Everyone at the company expressed enthusiasm, president Sylvia Lafair recalls, but before long, one employee began complaining that the dog, a mixed-breed collie named Mr. Ray, hovered outside her office and wouldn't leave her alone.

    Shore tried to restrict Mr. Ray to the other end of the office, but couldn't keep the pup away from the complainer. "Finally, two people came to me and said, 'She has dog biscuits in the drawer of her desk and feeds the dog when nobody is looking,'" says Lafair. "It was very devious."

    Lafair confronted the employee about her passive aggressive behavior and received a wide-eyed response: she just felt sorry for the dog. After a few more incidents of underhanded behavior and performance issues, Lafair had to fire the problem employee.

    "Passive aggressive people will say yes to your face and stab you in the back," she says. "Sometimes you can't help.... They need to be asked to leave."

    ”

    Passive-aggressive employees present one of the toughest workplace challenges to both managers and coworkers. The behavior can be difficult to identify, and even tougher to change. Left unaddressed, passive-aggressive actions can spread to other employees and create a culture of heel dragging and mute rebellion.

    "The passive aggressive stuff is like a cancer. It's insidious and if you walk by it, you're saying it's acceptable and it will spread to others," says George Bradt, a consultant and author of The New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan. "The prescription is, head it off at the pass."

Spotting the symptoms

    An employee who shows up late to meetings, sits in the back of the room, and mutters to colleagues is displaying some of the classic signs of passive aggressive behavior. Most telling is when a person misses an important milestone and claims that he was attending to something more important, such as meeting with clients.

    "They're saying, 'What I committed to you, to the team to do, I really didn't mean I was going to do it, because you are less important than someone else,'" Bradt says.