News from Veterinary Business Advisors, Inc

July 2015

Negative Attitudes: How to Identify and Deal with Negativity in the Practice

Almost everyone has experienced the challenges associated with a negative coworker and/or employee. Typical behaviors include:

Gossiping that causes conflict and/or ill will among staff

Complaining, and never being pleased with decisions or comments made
Criticizing, and exaggerating mistakes made by others
Disrespectful comments and/or passive aggressive behaviors when given a task
Arguing rather than compromising or finding ways to settle disagreements
Goofing off, not helping when coworkers need assistance
Any other comments or actions that affect the morale of people who works at the practice - and/or that damage client relationships and/or hurt the practice overall

Some negative people are blatant about their behaviors, which draws them out into the open and makes it easier, usually, to deal with the negativity. Too often, though, these behaviors are subtle. And, to quote the article titled Dealing with acidic attitudes: Help for your managers, "They're frequently pretty good at their jobs, so they're not called on the carpet too often. But like a virus running in the background of a computer program, their acidic personalities eat away at the goals - and ultimately the bottom line - of the company week after week, year after year" (Gould, 2015).

(Click here to read full article)

Social Media: How Are You Dealing With It?

At just past 6pm on an undisclosed date an employee wrote on Facebook:

"OMG (oh my god) I hate my job! My boss is a total ******, always making me do **** stuff just to **** me off!! ******!"

An older man who is pictured wearing sunglasses, wrote to her at 10.53pm the same day: "Hi, I guess you forgot about adding me on here?" He added: "Firstly, don't flatter yourself. Secondly, you've worked

here for 5 months, Thirdly, that **** stuff' is called your 'job', you know, what I pay you to do. But the fact that you seem to be able to **** up the simplest of tasks might contribute to how you feel about it. And lastly, you also seem to have forgotten that you have 2 weeks left on your 6 month trial period. Don't bother coming in tomorrow."

Unfortunately, conversations like this are happening quite frequently these days. Status updates and blogging about personal lives, daily activities, politics, social gatherings, and news topics are a staple

in the daily routines of many people. While simply posting information about an event you attended or how sick you may feel one day, may not be anything to be concerned about, it is when people speak disparagingly about their job, their boss, customers or co-workers that it could cause irreparable damage.

In the past, businesses did not have to worry about monitoring social technology like this for means of employment. Those days are gone. With the average adult spending 11+ hours per day with digital media, social networking accounts for 3+ hours per day of all internet time, and is constantly increasing.

The increase in the amount of time people spend on these sites is changing the way people spend their time online and has ramifications for how people behave, share and interact within their normal daily lives. The implementation of mobile applications for social networking has made visiting these sites numerous times on a daily basis even easier.

So as an employer, have you thought about protecting your practice, your goodwill, and yourself from libel commentary or defaming remarks through social networking? Implementing a Social Media Policy and Confidentiality Policy within your practice can mitigate the risk of that happening.

If you would like additional information regarding Social Media Policies and what is best for your practice, please contact us!

In This Issue

Negative Attitudes

Social Media

Rebecca Donnelly, VBA Extern

In the Spotlight:

Rebecca Donnelly, VBA Extern

VBA's newest extern, Rebecca Donnelly is a fourth year veterinary student at Cornell University, where she is focused on small animal medicine. After graduation, she hopes to either pursue an internship and residency or jump right into general practice with a short-term goal of owning a practice. She has always had a particular interest in women's leadership and was one of the founding members of the first student chapter of the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative at Cornell. At VBA, she looks forward to exploring the intricacies of the purchase and sale of practices, structure and analysis of human resources, effective employee management, and the legal side of veterinary practice ownership. In any spare time she can find during clinics, she enjoys running, interior and graphic design, planning international travel, and spending time with her puppy, Layla.