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The Effect Of Toxic Coworkers

A few weeks back I touched on the subject of coworkers who were trouble in a post titled "What Can I Do To Succeed?" This time I thought I would give a few more true stories of these toxic people and how they operate.

First off, let me say that I have probably been one of these people at some point in my career in sales. It's a hard job and especially tough when one is not succeeding. As I have said many times, people who do not do well in sales are, in many cases, not given an honest assessment of the job when they are brought on board. Too many hiring managers and recruiters will only tell new hires the good parts of the job and leave out the bad. 

For instance, a few years ago I interviewed with a very large life insurance agency in Charleston, SC. The manager showed me a leaderboard with all of the top producers' names and production. There were about a dozen names on the list. I had seen this kind of pitch before, so I asked how many agents were in the agency. He let me know there were about 75, so I asked how the middle of the pack was doing, retention rates of agents, and other questions that let him know that I wasn't buying what he was selling. 

In other words, he was only giving me part of the story.

Not being upfront and only talking about the best case scenarios will eventually lead to a drop in morale for your sales crew. When they find out that the job is not the way it was described they will quickly become demotivated and leave. 

I was part of that demotivated group on several occasions, and again the roots of it go back to being told one thing (usually when onboarding) and seeing something else in the field. 

For example, during one of my tenures at another company, we were told to attend a morning sales meeting each day. The problem was that after the meeting there was nothing for us to do because very few people were at home (this was door-to-door residential sales). We had to wait until hours later when people were home to make sales, so we had a lot of time to kill. 

Several guys in our crew would meet at diners, pool halls and various other places to kill time. Eventually, the meetings became "bitch sessions" and the negativity was palpable. Discussions centered on lost sales and bad management. 

The line up in our group was like a revolving door. Sooner or later, one person would find another job. A new guy, who was quickly disillusioned like the rest of us would fill the gap. As we went through new "members" of our group, the company was also having to keep new people in the pipeline. 

As you can see, there was a never ending cycle of negativity created. To call it "toxic" would be doing a disservice to every chemical waste dump in the country. Eventually, the bad feeling amongst our peers would implode, leaving no one with a job. The manager would have to find a whole new sales crew, just like he had done when we were hired, and probably many times before that.

This is how these situations start. People who aren't making sales or meeting quotas start to feel the pressure. Or there are those times when you are starting feeling pretty good about your situation and the goalposts get moved. That's happened to me as well.

But when it happens to several people on the team, they begin to compare notes, not in a constructive way, like with encouragement. Instead they share how horrible the job is or how the management is only out for themselves. 

I worked for a horrible life insurance company years ago and each Friday morning we would attend a required meeting. We were to announce our sales to the group and clap for the ones who sold. Sometimes we would go over some new products or get yelled at when no one was producing. In total, this waste of time would drag on until about noon, when everyone who had no appointments scheduled, would convene at the local Chinese buffet for lunch. 


Over eggrolls and duck sauce the agents would complain about how their week had sucked or someone had stood them up for an appointment. After sitting through about three of these luncheons, I realized that the management guys were across the room, bitching among themselves about us. They even let me sit in on their conversation.

After that, I stopped eating with the sales team. I actually tried to bring my contact with them to a minimum, which oddly enough, was about the same time my production went up. By insulating myself from the negative sales people, my own attitude got better. I still had a crappy attitude, but now it wasn't being encouraged by the sales reps who inevitably were going to fail. 

Do what you can to avoid the people who are not going to help you. Just because misery loves company, it doesn't mean you have to be a willing participant. Being able to recognize the problem of negative coworkers can be the first step in turning your sales around. 


Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.

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