At the risk of sounding cynical, what exactly did these professors expect when they asked workers at an unnamed auto parts plant what made them cynical?

        Anybody who has ever worked for more than three years at a full-time job knows the answer to that one: It's lack of control over a job and the antics of bosses and not necessarily in that order.

        Not surprisingly, the study from the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University found that most thought it was managers who bred cynicism — not the workers themselves.

        Oh no, we are blameless. It's not our fault we are cynical. It's those guys over there, the bosses, they are why we are cynical.

        The study of 1,000 workers took three years to complete, and it consisted, in part, of workers recording what made them distressed, irritable, nervous and hostile.

        The majority said bosses made them cynical, but there is another take on the issue: The nature of work, in and of itself, leads to cynicism. How could it not?

        Just the thought of work on a day at the golf course creates distress, irritation and hostility.

        And when the thought of work stops bringing on those emotions, then there's always the other prime cause: a manager who is lousy at managing, in too deep, obtuse, arrogant. And this list might never end.
       

Work to be done
               Workers told the researchers that managers make them feel bad. Well, of course they do. That's part of their job description, isn't it? Who cares how you feel, there's work to be done.

        Managers tell people what to do; they make mistakes; and when they are not making mistakes, they dish out orders from an air-conditioned office or from a cell phone from an expense-account lunch.

        Yep, it's the boss who creates the cynicism — not the worker. At least that's what these researchers learned.

        The survey found that workers most likely to feel cynical and respond with hostility, distress and irritability are also the ones most likely to file a grievance — usually about the boss.

        About 38 percent of those who scored high on the professorial cynicism meter filed a grievance two years prior to the survey — compared with the 21 percent likelihood of a filing from a worker who was ranked low in cynicism.

        In other words, cynical people respond to workplace situations in a cynical way — they file complaints.
       

Cynicals not committed
               Here's another inane finding: Cynical people don't work as hard. They don't think that pay is related to how hard they work, and a majority — six out of 10 — of the highly cynical people in an organization are not going to be very committed to their workplace.

        Three years of study of 1,000 factory workers wasn't necessary to figure all this out. About an hour on any assembly line should have been long enough.

        What the study failed to address is the personal nature of cynicism, a bittersweet state-of-mind that goes something like this:

        You have my time because you buy for it with a check. You have my sweat, too, and ignore my pleas when it starts to rain and snow because that's part of the deal, too.

        But my cynicism, well, that's mine, all mine, and you're just going to have to put up with it. And you know what else? Like hope, you can't take it away.

        E-mail jeckberg@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8386.
       

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