I admit it. I love, love, love reality TV. Project Runway, The Apprentice, Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, The Amazing Race, The Next Food Network Star.  I spend every Sunday catching up on the trauma and drama of people fighting to make it to the top or stay out of the bottom.

Why do I love these shows that glorify malfunction, back biting, and nastiness?  Because as someone who dives into other’s conflict all the time, it is like Jane Goodall observing the chimps.

What is good for ratings and interesting entertainment is actually horrid for the workplace. Through shows like the Apprentice, Hell’s Kitchen, and Project Runway naïve people are learning everything not to do to be successful at work.

Teamwork? No way!  Look out for number one.  Respectful communication?  Nope. Snipe and gossip.  Conflict resolution skills?  Forget it!

One lesson that is spot on…if you mess with someone, they will not forget and will try and take you down.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Workplace Conflict, Personal Boundaries, Workplace Stress, Self Destructive Behavior, Workplace Bullying, office conflict. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.