Does it seem to you that people complain more and more these days? Does it also seem that people complain more and more about situations beyond anyone’s control?
I am sure you would answer both questions with a resounding “Yes.”
There are reasons for these phenomena. And surprisingly, some of this complaining is a good sign because different kinds of complaints mean different things.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow is well-known for his theory on the hierarchy of human needs. He also wrote an interesting journal containing workplace observations which he published in 1965 as “Eupsychian Management.” The book has since been re-titled “Maslow on Management.”
Maslow observed that there are three kinds of grumbles. Low grumbles have to do with the meeting of basic needs such as pay and working conditions. High grumbles kick in after workers have exceeded their basic needs and receive better pay and less rigorous working conditions. And then he introduces us to metagrumbles—those grumbles which are more philosophical in nature and may not have anything to do with one’s pay or working conditions.
You won’t find many low grumbles in the modern workplace. With minimum wage laws, government benefits such as food stamps, OSHA workplace safety requirements and unemployment insurance, even the lowest paid workers are relatively secure compared to fifty years ago.
Americans may think that the lowest-paid workers live at the doorstep of desolate poverty, but thousands of people purposely earn $10,000 to $15,000 per year, max out their government entitlements, and still own their own humble residence. More people than you would imagine shop for near-new clothes at thrift stores. More people than you would imagine download discount coupons. More people than you would imagine live well on the cheap.
High grumbles are a different matter. If you give an employee an office with one window, he’ll want two. If his company car is a sedan, he’ll want an SUV. Give him a black stapler and he’ll want the snazzy red one.
The classic high grumble that I hear most often comes from the professional whose year-end bonus makes up a large portion of his annual pay. The bonus is almost always less than was expected. And this grumble comes from people who make a comfortable six figures (eight counting the decimal.)
High grumbles are often related to perks. After one has bettered his lifestyle beyond basic needs, a portion of that extra income will go toward building status or partaking of leisure activities. Tell John Doe that he can no longer use company-paid frequent flyer miles for personal or vacation travel, and you will hear a high grumble.
Low grumbles are a product of the authoritarian workplace, a workplace of despair and fear. Low grumbles, according to Maslow, are a sign that workers are not meeting their basic needs.
High grumbles, on the other hand, can be a positive sign in the workplace. If interpreted properly, high grumbles point to ways in which to motivate workers. Yes, the high grumble worker may benefit personally from having his complaint satisfied, but there will almost always be a spillover that benefits the organization. An office with a second window might actually increase a worker’s sense of worth in the hierarchy and be more effective and less costly than the offer of a pay raise.
Metagrumbles are rhetorical, nebulous thoughts. The worker wants to see more “honesty,” or more “justice,” in the way the company treats its employees. These words, of course, never get defined. Who are the metagrumblers according to Maslow? “[P]eople who have the luxury of complaining at this level are strictly living a very high-level life.”
Darryl Hannah was the very model of a modern metagrumbler when she flew cross country to West Virginia and sat on her duff to protest coal mining. Glenn Beck has become a metagrumbler extraordinaire since he gave up drinking (prior to which he was presumably a low grumbler.)
A metagrumbler need not be a celebrity, though. The “high-level life” that Maslow refers to means that most high needs have been satisfied, and the person is free to contemplate such unanswerable questions as “Is global warming caused by man?”
Maslow concludes that it is impossible for people not to complain: “There is no Garden of Eden, there is no paradise…” But he also advises that grumbles lead to solutions, which in turn lead to the betterment of all mankind. And he envisions this process of grumbling as being eternal.
