Flingers, wedgers and inchers – the hidden impact of littering on your profits

Walking in the park the other day, I noticed, with my usual sense of disappointment, litter left by fellow park users. It got me thinking – how does littering behaviour reflect on office behaviour and how might this impact the bottom line? A report on littering in Australia* identified a large number of ‘littering types’. Let’s look at how three of these types may manifest in the workplace. “Flingers” litter with free abandon; they just chuck their rubbish away and don’t seem to care who sees, expecting others will clean it up. In the office, flingers will leave the printer paper wrapper near the printer, their dirty coffee cup in the sink and incomplete work for others to finish. They probably air their personal troubles at work: either burdening others with their tales of woe or storming about making everyone else suffer with them. Flingers are a drain on resources because they require constant attention. Deal with flingers by setting rules for office behaviour and making sure everyone sticks to them. The “wedgers” like things to look tidy; they won’t chuck rubbish on the ground, but they will stuff it in a crack in the park bench. Appearance is important to wedgers; they will look like they’ve got it all together – their workspace will look tidy and they will usually be well-groomed. Wedgers won’t bring their personal issues to work because they don’t have any (that they admit to). They will, however, regale everyone with how well their daughter performs at the ballet concert and how perfect their family Christmas was. When things do start to go wrong, wedgers will try to hide their mistakes because to err is less than perfect. Wedgers will hide a problem until it’s too big to ignore and by then, you’ve lost heaps of time and money. Manage wedgers by making it safe to discuss mistakes and shortcomings without blame and retribution. The “inchers” place the rubbish surreptitiously to one side and then inch slowly away until they can pretend it wasn’t theirs in the first place. Think the coffee cup left in the middle of the table in the meeting room; it could be anyone’s right? Inchers love office gossip because it deflects negative attention onto others. Inchers are the scariest at work; because when the shit hits the fan, not only will they pretend they had nothing to do with it, they will likely point the finger at you. Keep inchers on track with regular, recorded, work-in-progress meetings. In this faced-paced, high-stress world, it’s natural for people try to lighten their burden in the workplace. Your employees will never be as invested in your company as you are. They will never care as much about your company as they do about themselves. Watch out for flingers, wedgers and inchers; and take care they do not transfer their burden onto your bottom-line.   *Community Change Consultants. Understanding Littering Behaviour in Australia. Beverage Industry Environment Council, 1997