Related Stories: “Is Being Nice Holding You Back at Work?” goes viral on TikTok as a video by user Jacqueline claims that individuals who are both good at doing work and maintaining pleasant demeanors will never be promoted. The clip has garnered over 8 million views and 900,00 likes due to its resonance with young workers’ experiences in the workplace. In her TikTok video, Jacqueline argues that executives would rather keep employees who excel at their jobs but lack a smile while doing so from advancing up the corporate ladder because they know these individuals will continue performing well regardless of promotion. The theory has been named “performance punishment” by viewers in response to reliable and effective workers being assigned additional tasks due to being seen as dependable.
Despite popular belief, evidence suggests that disagreeable personalities do not climb any further up the ranks than those with more pleasant traits like empathy, communication skills, and a collaborative work style. According to research conducted by Professor Cameron Anderson at the Haas School of Business in California for a study released earlier this year involving participants who took personality tests 14 years prior, disagreeable individuals possess two distinct characteristics that cancel each other out: dominance and assertiveness which help them attain power but also selfishness that workers deem detrimental to relationships among team members.
Conversely, being pleasant at work can offer some benefits according to Andrew Brodsky, a management professor from the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business. He explained in an interview with CNBC Make It that helping colleagues and displaying other-oriented behavior could lead to trust among coworkers which provides access to resources such as information not available otherwise to one particular colleague compared to his peers in terms of influence; such assistance might also foster career growth via reward schemes, for individuals seen deserving by others.
A study published earlier this year involving 200 studies found that workers with high levels of prosocial motivation experience greater wellbeing and job performance as a result. Nonetheless, there are caveats to being overly pleasant in the workplace since people may lose sight of their self-interests when they become too “other-oriented.” According to Brodsky’s assessment, this is not necessarily equivalent to having an agreeable personality but rather treating colleagues politely without compromising one’s own interests.
The popularity of Jacqueline’s TikTok video can be attributed in part to a general loss of confidence by workers in the level of corporate loyalty provided currently compared with previous decades, according to Brodsky. He explained that while employees used to anticipate working for an organization for 40 years and receiving retirement benefits or other tokens at termination like a watch (the metaphorical gold), today’s work environment is characterized by less company-wide devotion as witnessed in recent layoffs, prompting staffers to be less devoted towards their organizations.
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