Easing The Silent Treatment, Fostering Open Communication In The Workplace

No need to engage in loud arguments or heavy insults with each other. The most painful mental damage comes from… doing nothing!

Have you ever encountered a situation when you just walked into a room and everyone suddenly went quiet? It’s awkward, right? Sometimes, one person can shift the atmosphere and leave others feeling uneasy. The silent treatment isn’t just uncomfortable; it can mess with people’s heads and the whole vibe at work.

Table of contents

I. What is silent treatment?

II. Why choose to keep silent rather than open communication?

III. How it affects one person individually

IV. Wrapping it up

What is the silent treatment?

The silent treatment refers to refusing to verbally communicate with another person and treating them like they’re invisible. The Workplace Bullying Institute explains that workplace bullies use the silent treatment to snub targeted employees in conversations, ignore their comments at meetings, refuse to answer questions, and leave emails unread. These bullies can be either bosses or coworkers.

Read more:New Hires Are Set Up to Fail and Here’s Why

Why choose to keep silent rather than open communication?

There are many reasons behind this norm.

1. Protect themselves

When one newcomer joins the company, there will be some awkward, silent moments. This time is for both parties to determine whether their “vibes” match. Some with reserved personalities often choose to remain silent before determining whether this person could be a potential teammate.

Read more: Giving Performance Reviews to Your Most Difficult Employees

2. Afraid of making someone hurt due to verbal words

Some individuals may lack confidence in initiating a conversation due to their awareness of their limited communication skills. This leads to the fear of unintentionally hurting or disappointing others.

3. Revenge the counterpart

There might have been a big fight that just broke out, and people gave other coworkers the silent treatment to show their disagreement. Interestingly, the person who is applying the silent treatment to their coworkers may also have been the victim of silence in the past. Now, they use the same tactics to exact revenge on others.

Read more: Are We Overvaluing Employee Satisfaction?

How does the silent treatment affect each individual?

When employees are on the receiving end of the silent treatment, it can feel pretty rough, especially for newcomers still in transition. Here’s how it typically affects them:

• Emotional rollercoaster: Being ignored can hit hard, prompting individuals to question their place in the group and can lead to anxiety or sadness. For overthinkers, who tend to take things seriously, the silence will contribute to stress, as not knowing why being sidelined can be super stressful. 

• Dropped motivation: Without support from coworkers, it’s tough to stay excited about what individuals are trying to complete. Work can start to feel monotonous, lonely, and disconnected from the team. 

• Performance slips: When communication breaks down, both an individual’s productivity and teamwork suffer. Definitely, the result might lead nowhere.

Read more: How to Ensure Mental Health for Your Remote Employees

The impact on the team

When viewed from a broader perspective, the silent treatment doesn’t just affect one person; it can shake up the whole team.

• Miscommunication: Silence breeds confusion. When people stop talking, misunderstandings arise, and tensions escalate. The result? We can easily predict that the team’s integrity and unity will diminish if the silence continues.
• Less collaboration: If folks retreat to their shells, teamwork fails. Any project needs a minimum number of committed team members to achieve the best results. Thus, collaboration is crucial. Foremost, strong collaboration needs open lines of communication, and silence kills that purpose.
• Destroy unity: Miscommunication and lack of collaboration will definitely destroy unity within the team. When a group lacks shared goals or a common voice, it becomes challenging for them to work together effectively.

Wider organisational effects

At the corporate level, issues arising from the silent treatment can also have detrimental effects.

• Productivity drops: Poor communication among teams slows everything down. Poor communication among teams can hinder the achievement of organisational goals, often resulting from underperforming individuals and teams.
• Bad reputation: Companies known for poor team dynamics may struggle to attract top-tier talent. Who wants to work in a place that feels toxic? Furthermore, it takes much time and effort for a company to rebuild their reputation in the long term. 
• Higher turnover: Good employees want to be in a positive environment where they can fully devote their talents and potential. When the work environment is filled with silence, it can become toxic; the company risks losing talent, leading to increased hiring and training costs.
• Leadership struggles: C-suites and managers have their work cut out in a culture where silence prevails—overcoming interpersonal conflict is a major challenge. Obviously, they can devote 100% of their focus to strategic planning or brand-new initiatives for the whole company rather than addressing employee-relations conflicts.

Recognising when it’s happening

If you’re in a managerial or HR role, spotting ostracism is key when building or reconstructing your team. Here are some signs to keep an eye out for:

• Behaviour changes: If someone who was once engaged starts withdrawing or goes quiet in meetings, they tend to sit apart from colleagues. These signals indicate that there might be issues lurking beneath the surface, such as conflict or isolation, that need to be addressed before they escalate. 
• Avoiding communication: Employees who aren’t making eye contact, avoid contributing, or seem reluctant to share their ideas might feel uncomfortable in the environment. 
• Discrepancies in group dynamics: If certain individuals consistently dominate conversations while others remain silent, it might be due to a power imbalance created by silent treatment methods. The resulting group dynamics can stifle collaboration and innovation.

Read more: Are You One of These Four Employees Who Make or Break a Meeting?

How can HR help to build healthy communication? 

When team members refuse to communicate, some individuals are left to swim in a sea of thoughts to figure out what others are thinking. Thus, creating a workplace culture where people feel included, valued, and encouraged to speak up is crucial. HR is an integral part of the process and cannot be ignored. Here are some straightforward ways to encourage open communication:

• Anonymous surveys: Conducting a structured survey can provide employees a place to share their thoughts without fear of judgment. 
• Workshop training: Focusing on communication skills and conflict resolution can equip employees to tackle tough conversations effectively, whether within their internal team or across departments. 
• Have clear protocols: To tackle workplace bullying and ostracism before they escalate, create well-publicised, unambiguous guidelines that cover key topics such as the recipient of the report and the processing time.
• Promote diversity and inclusion: Building a culture that values diverse perspectives makes it less likely for someone to feel sidelined, as people will be more open to accepting the differences in culture and social background among individuals. 
• Lead by example: Encourage leaders to model the communication they want to see. When management addresses issues openly, it encourages others to do the same. When leaders give the silent treatment to their teammates, peers, and colleagues, they are, perhaps unintentionally but in essence, encouraging others to do the same.

Read more: Avoid These Mistakes When You Are Managing Gen Z Employees

In conclusion

The silent treatment is a harmful worm that destroys workplace dynamics and negatively impacts individuals, teams, and the organisation as a whole.

It’s important to address this kind of issue as soon as possible, not only to help individuals feel better but also to strengthen the overall workplace dynamics.

HR and those in managerial roles play an irreplaceable role in building an open culture that encourages direct, open communication, which can help alleviate the burden of silence treatment.