If you work in public service, people are going to push your buttons. How you react to any given situation, is what separates you from other employees in your agency.
“Cancel my backup!”
In order to successfully de-escalate a situation inside your agency, or on the street, you must be aware of, and in control of your emotions at all times.
When we teach our classes to law enforcement, most officers chuckle when we ask the question…
“Have you ever wanted to cancel your back-up, because you knew that officer would ‘ramp up’ your call, making it worse than if you had handled it alone?
This type of ‘toxic employee’ habitually jumps the police call because they are already angry or pissed off about something, and very often have a self-serving agenda. This escalating of a call creates mistrust in the community and depletes department morale.
When you learn to control your emotions, you learn to control the situation… on the job, and at home ~ Randy Friedman, RITE Co-founder
Got toxic employees?
Are there employees in your department displaying ‘toxic’ emotions? It takes only one bad employee to take down the entire department. Allowing one toxic employee to flourish within your ranks, can bring the whole department down
- Anger and Blame
- Spreading Rumors and Gossip
- Mental Looping and Disgruntled, (Complaining that they did not get promoted)
- Crab Bucket Mentality – Pulling Other Co-workers Down)
- Entitlement Complex – It’s All About ME!
- Harassment and Condescending Remarks
- Improper Social Media Posting
If you, or anyone else knowingly take a blind-eye to unprofessional behavior, you are demoralizing the canons of public service. Integrity Ownership means the whole department is committed and willing to uphold a professional workplace culture.
As public service professionals we are expected to control our emotions all the time, no matter whether we are on-duty or off duty. It can be even harder to control those emotions if there are outside factors that can impact your emotions.
- Internal department strife
- Ongoing unprofessional workplace culture
- Financial Instability
- Personal Relationship Issues
- PTSD and Mental Illness
- Drug/Alcohol Addiction
- Health Issues, and Officer Wellness
Take personal ownership of your emotions. The first step to controlling your Emotions is AWARENESS. Once you are Aware, you have the ability to change. Pro-active training, like RITE, helps officers move in a more positive direction.
RITE Response saves Careers
Controlling your emotions is pivotal when trying to de-escalate any engagement with a community member. Be sure that if you are with a toxic employee who is out-of-control with their emotions… that you activate the RITE RESPONSE – DUTY TO INTERVENE
Imagine if your officers asked themselves, “What am I feeling?” on the way to a police call… one that they’ve been to before multiple times. Are they thinking,
“Here we go again, I’ve been to this house before, and I am pissed I have to go back again. I’ll make sure they don’t call me again!”
Are most of your officers at the top of the Emotional Ladder (RITE Ladder Tool) towards Optimism and Confidence, or do they spend more time at the bottom of the Ladder towards Anger and Frustration? Going to a call being Angry, is never a good thing, and will likely escalate the call.
Controlling your emotions will help you….
- Career resiliency
- Work through difficult and challenging situations
- Be able to see many options
- Make better decisions
- Stops bias and judgmental behavior
- Enables you to see new opportunities
- Builds lasting relationships personally and professionally
Toxic employees let their emotions like anger control every part of their daily lives and can often put you in danger.
Control your own emotions and THRIVE in every situation!
RITE Training helps law and corrections agencies improve communication to avoid the Block-out Syndrome, to De-escalate situations, build Career resiliency, Leadership skills, and Departmental recruiting. See our EVENTS page for our next training.
Contact us about TRAINING for your agency.
