14 Tips To Deal With Drama In The Workplace – 6 Reasons

Have you ever seen drama in your workplace? Or are you one of those luckiest individuals working at peaceful organizations?

Gossips, rumors, complaints, taking sides in conflicts are all included in drama.

No, we aren’t talking about your high school! Obviously, that sounds pretty much like high school drama. But workplace drama is similar or sometimes worse than that.

14 Simple Tips To Handle Drama In The Workplace

No matter what shape a drama manifests itself, it’s always an opposing force in the company.

Leaders of the company should adopt a zero-tolerance approach against the drama.

Here are a few tips and strategies to shut drama in your workplace.

1. Be Transparent To Handle Drama

There is more drama in an organization with secretive environments. That’s why organizations should keep transparency in performance or any changes coming shortly.

As everything will be transparent, employees will have nothing to gossip about.

It’s a good idea for the leadership to be transparent too. Lesser the secrets, lesser will be the worry about someone getting to know it.

2. Exemplify The Behavior You Expect To See

If you want to stop the drama in the workplace, begin it with yourself. Be an example for others so they can follow your standards.

Avoid participating in drama yourself. Never gossip or badmouth behind someone’s back.

Be respectful and fair towards everyone and show that you believe in equity.

Beware of the messages you send and never copy others. Even if it’s an email, you don’t need to copy it because it’s a sensitive matter.

As a leader, you must hold your standards high and examine your goals and motives. A leader controls workplace behavior!

3. Drama In The Workplace – Remember Venting Doesn’t Solve Anything.

Venting boosts the negativity. It’s the ego’s way of avoiding self-reflection and creating a mess.

Good leaders or coworkers never listen to venting and return the discussion to a real topic.

It’s good to bring the opposing parties together at a table and solve the conflict between them.

Because actions speak louder than words.

4. Try To Know About People’s Motivations To Avoid Drama

Drama isn’t done every time out of bad intentions. Sometimes an employee causes drama in the workplace unintentionally.

They might have good intentions, but their delivery of motives got broken. Sometimes people need to get something fixed, but they don’t know how to do it.

If you have an understanding communication with them, you might get to know their motive.

You can also teach them tips to tackle similar situations in the future.

5. Set A Proper System To Manage Conflict

As a leader, you should train your employees to manage situations. You can do this by giving step-by-step instructions on how to get there.

Most people are unaware of how their actions can be harmful. But you can deal with many of the problems by giving a bit of training.

6. End Resistance To Change – It’s A Source Of Drama

Traditional change management techniques have now got older that are useless. These techniques need to get changed with training for focus and business readiness.

When people are fluent in the present, and they exactly know what’s coming, they won’t resist change.

Instead, employees will get excited to embrace the opportunities change can bring.

7. Drama In The Workplace – Keep Conversations Open

Don’t you think it’s better to fix an issue, rather than going behind people’s back and complaining?

Of course, it is!

It’s always a better idea to approach the person and have an open conversation with him.

You can add facts and figures to back your statement. When we talk openly about an issue, we get to know the root cause.

It opens the way to solve the problem permanently.

8. Develop Accountability By Coaching And Mentoring

It’s essential to build the company culture to fight against emotional drama. That’s the key to success.

You can do this by developing coaching and mentoring programs within the company.

High-performing companies build such programs that are applicable throughout the company.

All the team members, managers, and entrepreneurs need to practice these skills. So the workplace drama can get eliminated on a collective basis.

9. Don’t Repeat The Story To Handle Drama In The Workplace

If something terrible happens to you, you’ll feel the urge to tell it to everyone. You might be telling this story to the people that have nothing to do with it.

That’s venting! You need to stop doing it.

It won’t suit you as a leader to show such behavior. So learn to stop venting and let your coworkers know how bad it can be.

Repeating a story, again and again, makes it look more extensive than the real problem. It spreads negativity around the organization.

10. Drama In The Workplace – Never Assume The Negative Intent

The drama begins when you start to assume the worst intent in team members and coworkers. Drama is all about wasting time on unproductive behaviors and thinking negatively.

Don’t assume negative intent, and don’t allow others to do so. As a leader, your focus should be to hire people with good intentions.

Build a culture of trust and respect, and don’t let negativity take over the situation.

11. Shut Down The Troublemakers Straight Away

When you see someone getting into bad behavior and causing trouble, you need to shut them down right away.

Take a two-pronged approach. First, don’t get into the trouble makers’ conversation. Be professional and aboveboard.

Second, tell the troublemaker and everyone else that you won’t accept the drama at any cost.

Bring the environment of the company back to normal. We all need a gentle reminder!

12. Tell Your Employees To Carry Their Own Messages

When an employee takes another person’s complaint to you, ask him, “Did you talk to him openly”?

Teach your employees to advocate for themselves rather than bringing complaints.

People working in offices are adults, and adults need to solve their dramas on their own.

13. Drama In The Workplace – Give People Another Chance

We all make mistakes! If any of your employees makes a mistake, you should give them a chance.

If you hold a grudge or turn everyone against him, you might end up causing big trouble.

We all are humans, and we do have bad days. Leave this self-righteous attitude of yours and give up on their mistakes.

It’s a good thing to give people a bit of grace when they stumble.

14. Reward The People Who Do It Right

We all learn by example, and it’s good to see a person on the right track. If you see someone dealing with the conflict in a positive way, recognize their efforts.

At the same time, admit it when you are wrong. If you do something that births drama, own your mistake and apologize for it.

People respect leaders who are vulnerable about their flaws.

3 Ways By Which Drama In The Workplace Impacts Organization

Workplace drama leaves a severe impact on any organization. But if we allow ongoing drama, it will leave a devastating effect on everyone.

Following are ways telling how uncontrolled drama can impact your organization.

1. The Bottom Line Gets Affected

When employees involve in drama, their focus is on gossips. They forget about their customers and ignore their performance.

Drama requires time. People need lots of time to start a dramatic conversation, to argue. Also, to spread that argument in the office involves time.

Remember that employees get paid for this time. It impacts the bottom line of the organization negatively.

2. Drama In The Workplace Causes Loss Of Respect

Employees engage in drama yet think that why their leaders don’t do anything to stop it.

It’s more important for a leader to get respect instead of getting liked. Suppose you think that you should avoid workplace drama just for getting liked.

You’re doing it wrong.

You must prioritize the workplace’s peace; if you don’t, your employees won’t respect you.

3. Increased Turnover

Productive employees like a peaceful environment where they can be successful.

Such people are self-motivated. They are aware that workplace drama won’t let them thrive and grow in their career.

So leaving the company to move towards a greener workplace is the only option they have.

6 Causes Of Drama In The Workplace

There can be any cause behind a workplace drama, but these are the root causes of drama.

1. Lack Of Consistency In Problem-Solving

When there isn’t any authentic leadership, there’s no consistency in processes. It then leads to failure while implementing solutions in an even-handed way.

It also creates an air of unfairness where people think that they are not getting fair treatment.

When there’s no consistent procedure for solutions, the workplace gets perceived as unjust.

2. Inauthentic Leadership

Workplaces having no authentic and consistent leadership suffer from a lack of trust.

Employees think that the company is hypocritical, only speaking and not doing anything.

Such an environment makes the employees lose enthusiasm for their jobs. They aren’t interested anymore, and they don’t trust the company.

3. Uncertainty Between Unfair Or Illegal

Drama gets birthed when there’s an inconsistency in dealing with conflict. Misconduct is not dealt with, and people assume any level of misconduct as unfair or even illegal.

There’s an air of disbelief and lack of trust around the company.

Employees will feel free to make any false claim of legal violations.

In short, it all will turn out to be a mess!

4. No Transparency

A primary source of drama in organizations is the lack of transparency.

However, it pays to be honest.

It will help if organizations shift its belief and show transparency.

Because employees know more than you do, if you try to pull a curtain on their eyes, it will do more damage than good.

5. Unwillingness To Accept Mistakes

We all make mistakes, and we fail to interpret the problems too. As humans, it’s our nature to fail while making wise decisions.

Making mistakes is no bad, but failing to admit your mistakes can be disastrous.

A company whose leaders don’t accept their mistakes is an unauthentic organization. Such places have ongoing cycles of mistrust.

If these triggers remain unchecked, they can create opposing forces in the workplace.

6. Implementing Wrong Solutions

If a company doesn’t identify the reasons behind the drama, it will put in place the wrong solutions. In an attempt to correct things, they might overcorrect sometimes.

It’s a common practice in most workplaces today to say, “We’ll recheck our policies.” It makes the drama even worse.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Stop Being Dramatic At Work?

To stop being dramatic, you can take a walk around the office. Make sure to keep your round long enough so that you forget about the drama. Have a coffee, sit and relax. You can read something good to shift your focus.

What Causes Workplace Drama?

People don't always cause workplace drama intentionally. Sometimes it's their fear, insecurity, or emotional issues causing this behavior. In most cases, drama births when people don't know how to handle conflict.

How Do You Spot A Dramatic Person?

Dramatic people pretend to be sensitive, but the truth is something else. Their emotions superficial, and they love drama. Dramatic people want everyone to be sympathetic towards them and want to get rescued.

How Do You Ignore Drama?

To ignore drama, you should avoid giving unsolicited advice. Be within your limits and speak honestly about everything. Keep your focus to yourself and learn to say No. you must avoid taking part in any gossip.

Conclusion

Drama can destroy your workplace if you don’t take any serious action. Drama in the workplace is like a slow poison. It eats away everything, from the bottom line to top management.

And drama is also inevitable. Because where there are people, there will be drama!

The thing to notice is to know how to handle this drama. With this article, you must have learned some useful tactics to deal with drama in the workplace.

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Last Updated on 2 years by Shahzaib Arshad