????咨詢公司Creative Energy Options的營銷總監帕蒂?肖爾搬家需要花一個月的時間，所以，她申請將寵物狗帶到公司位于賓夕法尼亞州懷特港的辦公室。公司總裁西爾維婭?拉斐爾回憶說，當時，大家都非常熱心。但沒過多久，就有一名員工開始抱怨，稱那只名為雷的混血柯利牧羊犬總是在她辦公室門口轉悠，讓她不得安寧。

????肖爾試著把雷限制在辦公室的另外一邊，但它卻總是纏著那名員工。拉斐爾說：“后來，有兩名員工告訴我：‘她抽屜里有寵物餅干，而且總是趁人不注意的時候，用餅干喂狗。’這可真夠陰險的。”

????針對她的消極對抗行為，拉斐爾與她當面對質，但得到的回答卻讓她瞠目結舌：她說她只不過是同情這只狗。之后，這名員工又做了些不夠光明磊落的事，另外也是由于績效問題，拉斐爾最終不得不把這名問題員工辭退。

????她說：“消極對抗型的人當面同意你的觀點，卻可能在背后給你一刀。有時候，這樣的員工確實讓人無計可施……只能請他們走人。”

????消極對抗的員工對于上司和同事而言都是最嚴峻的挑戰。他們的行為難以識別，要想改變更是難上加難。但如果不解決問題，消極對抗的行為可能會蔓延開來，在公司內形成一種陽奉陰違、沉默對抗的氛圍。

????喬治?布萊特是一名顧問，并著有《新官上任百日行動計劃》（The New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan）一書。他說：“消極對抗就像癌癥一樣，非常隱蔽。如果你對它視而不見，那就意味著默許，之后就會傳染到其他人。處方很簡單，在它發作之前就把它消除掉。

發現癥狀

????開會遲到，還坐在后排跟同事竊竊私語，這都是典型的消極對抗行為。其中更典型的是，某位員工錯過了一件大事，結果卻聲稱那是因為自己有更重要的事情要辦，比如要去見客戶等等。

????布萊特認為：“他們的意思其實是說：‘我確實跟你和團隊承諾過的一些事情，但我并沒有真地打算去做，因為還有比你們更重要的人。’”

???

????During a month-long household move, Patty Shore, director of marketing at Creative Energy Options, asked to bring her dog to the consulting firm's White Haven, Pa. offices. Everyone at the company expressed enthusiasm, president Sylvia Lafair recalls, but before long, one employee began complaining that the dog, a mixed-breed collie named Mr. Ray, hovered outside her office and wouldn't leave her alone.

????Shore tried to restrict Mr. Ray to the other end of the office, but couldn't keep the pup away from the complainer. "Finally, two people came to me and said, 'She has dog biscuits in the drawer of her desk and feeds the dog when nobody is looking,'" says Lafair. "It was very devious."

????Lafair confronted the employee about her passive aggressive behavior and received a wide-eyed response: she just felt sorry for the dog. After a few more incidents of underhanded behavior and performance issues, Lafair had to fire the problem employee.

????"Passive aggressive people will say yes to your face and stab you in the back," she says. "Sometimes you can't help.... They need to be asked to leave."

????Passive-aggressive employees present one of the toughest workplace challenges to both managers and coworkers. The behavior can be difficult to identify, and even tougher to change. Left unaddressed, passive-aggressive actions can spread to other employees and create a culture of heel dragging and mute rebellion.

????"The passive aggressive stuff is like a cancer. It's insidious and if you walk by it, you're saying it's acceptable and it will spread to others," says George Bradt, a consultant and author of The New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan. "The prescription is, head it off at the pass."

Spotting the symptoms

????An employee who shows up late to meetings, sits in the back of the room, and mutters to colleagues is displaying some of the classic signs of passive aggressive behavior. Most telling is when a person misses an important milestone and claims that he was attending to something more important, such as meeting with clients.

????"They're saying, 'What I committed to you, to the team to do, I really didn't mean I was going to do it, because you are less important than someone else,'" Bradt says.