Immaturity in the workplace, signs to look for

Every time we assume that all people function emotionally and behaviorally at the same level in the workplace, we are sure to be surprised. Surprised when we come across a co-worker who responds to what we thought was a simple comment with an emotional outburst that resembles that of an eight-year-old rather than a thirty-year-old.

Although emotionally immature employees can be a source of difficulty at any level, according to Sherry Buffington, Ph.D., the higher they advance in the organization, the greater the problems. Should we be able to see an inappropriate emotional outburst coming? Are there signs that warn us about the level of emotional immaturity of various co-workers? Look for the following signs:


1. Inability to compromise with workplace rules and co-workers. Any group of people who spend time together must be able to compromise at times. Not everyone can get away with it every moment of the day.

2. Get defensive and make excuses when faced with a reality at work. Part of the difficulty of dealing with self-defense and excuse-making is that it can easily sidetrack us from the original issues.

3. Avoid responsibility for work and/or interactions with other co-workers. The ability to say, “I was wrong and you were right.” it is an important mark of maturity. It also helps us stay within the reality of situations instead of trying to create a false scenario to protect ourselves from having to take responsibility for our work and actions.

4. Misuse or response to authority, leading to resentment from others. It often results from a false sense of entitlement. “I’m the boss and I don’t have to respect you.”

5. A tendency to return to fighting instead of communicating toward conflict resolution. The most common response when an emotionally immature worker feels that he is challenged at work is usually: “Yes, but…” And when the problem raiser is verbally attacked without addressing the real problem.

6. Indulgence towards the effort to achieve quality work, which is another way of saying that they see themselves as lazy. But complacency is not the same as laziness. If the person is committed to the project, he can receive energy to complete it. Complacency is more a lack of concern for the outcome.

7. Try to make others responsible for their own emotions. It is always someone else’s fault that the emotionally immature worker is having a hard time at work.

The good news is that anyone can mature emotionally at any age. The bad news is that the workplace is not the best place to help a person grow emotionally. Few managers want to be the “parents” of emotionally teenage workers. The problems that can arise within the workplace, especially in the area of ​​interpersonal relationships, can be very disruptive. Figuring out how to grow emotionally immature workers can be a challenge for managers and co-workers to come up with solutions.

A manager can implement ways to hold their staff accountable in the workplace. This must be done in a mature way. It doesn’t help when the manager is reacting to the same level of immaturity as the staff member. Meeting each incident of emotional immaturity with a calm and consistent response that requires the staff member to look at her own behavior and change to meet managers’ expectations is a challenge.

Working with a colleague over whom you have no authority can be more difficult. Your options are more limited as to how to influence your co-worker to grow emotionally. Sometimes the only options you have are to be as emotionally mature as possible, while trying to stay out of the emotionally immature co-worker’s line of fire.

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