Bosses are witnessing a lot of bizarre behavior in Officeland these days. The lumpy and rumpled are showing up all spiffy and drycleaned. Mouthy iconoclasts are newly docile. Clock-watching slackers are suddenly the last to leave. People, it seems, are performing transplants on themselves—like the senior vice president at a pharmaceutical company known as a terrible flirt who says she recently forced herself to go oh-so-straitlaced. The desperation hustle may seem like a giant productivity boost for companies. Bosses can extract the work of two or three people out of a single body. But are employees really working harder? Or are they simply kissing up? And if they are working harder, how do managers tap into these paranoid spirits without turning workplaces into sweatshops? “Everybody is weirding out all over the place,” says Stanford University management professor Robert I. Sutton. “I am surrounded by people who are just hysterical.” The danger, says Sutton, is that fear in the workplace can be contagious. “Bosses need to be patient, understanding, and forgiving. These insecurities aren’t irrational.” 

Questions 

1. Why do some employees try to make themselves seem irreplaceable during tough economic times? 

2. What type(s) of leader power may be causing employees to act in this manner? 

3. What kinds of behaviors do you think leaders should engage in when they think that employees are trying to impress them during tough economic times? 

4. How might emotional intelligence help leaders deal with employees who are trying hard to be, or look like, model employees in tough economic times?