????咨詢公司Creative Energy Options的營(yíng)銷總監(jiān)帕蒂?肖爾搬家需要花一個(gè)月的時(shí)間，所以，她申請(qǐng)將寵物狗帶到公司位于賓夕法尼亞州懷特港的辦公室。公司總裁西爾維婭?拉斐爾回憶說(shuō)，當(dāng)時(shí)，大家都非常熱心。但沒(méi)過(guò)多久，就有一名員工開(kāi)始抱怨，稱那只名為雷的混血柯利牧羊犬總是在她辦公室門(mén)口轉(zhuǎn)悠，讓她不得安寧。

????肖爾試著把雷限制在辦公室的另外一邊，但它卻總是纏著那名員工。拉斐爾說(shuō)：“后來(lái)，有兩名員工告訴我：‘她抽屜里有寵物餅干，而且總是趁人不注意的時(shí)候，用餅干喂狗。’這可真夠陰險(xiǎn)的?！?/p>

????針對(duì)她的消極對(duì)抗行為，拉斐爾與她當(dāng)面對(duì)質(zhì)，但得到的回答卻讓她瞠目結(jié)舌：她說(shuō)她只不過(guò)是同情這只狗。之后，這名員工又做了些不夠光明磊落的事，另外也是由于績(jī)效問(wèn)題，拉斐爾最終不得不把這名問(wèn)題員工辭退。

????她說(shuō)：“消極對(duì)抗型的人當(dāng)面同意你的觀點(diǎn)，卻可能在背后給你一刀。有時(shí)候，這樣的員工確實(shí)讓人無(wú)計(jì)可施……只能請(qǐng)他們走人?！?/p>

????消極對(duì)抗的員工對(duì)于上司和同事而言都是最嚴(yán)峻的挑戰(zhàn)。他們的行為難以識(shí)別，要想改變更是難上加難。但如果不解決問(wèn)題，消極對(duì)抗的行為可能會(huì)蔓延開(kāi)來(lái)，在公司內(nèi)形成一種陽(yáng)奉陰違、沉默對(duì)抗的氛圍。

????喬治?布萊特是一名顧問(wèn)，并著有《新官上任百日行動(dòng)計(jì)劃》（The New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan）一書(shū)。他說(shuō)：“消極對(duì)抗就像癌癥一樣，非常隱蔽。如果你對(duì)它視而不見(jiàn)，那就意味著默許，之后就會(huì)傳染到其他人。處方很簡(jiǎn)單，在它發(fā)作之前就把它消除掉。

發(fā)現(xiàn)癥狀

????開(kāi)會(huì)遲到，還坐在后排跟同事竊竊私語(yǔ)，這都是典型的消極對(duì)抗行為。其中更典型的是，某位員工錯(cuò)過(guò)了一件大事，結(jié)果卻聲稱那是因?yàn)樽约河懈匾氖虑橐k，比如要去見(jiàn)客戶等等。

????布萊特認(rèn)為：“他們的意思其實(shí)是說(shuō)：‘我確實(shí)跟你和團(tuán)隊(duì)承諾過(guò)的一些事情，但我并沒(méi)有真地打算去做，因?yàn)檫€有比你們更重要的人?！?/p>

???

????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.