Two moans and you're out !

Interesting article about how to stop negativity in workplace...

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A German businesswoman has launched a campaign to stop her fellow countrymen whining, threatening her employees with the sack if they complain.

Ramona Wonneberger, 42, head of a Leipzig IT company, said she introduced a "two moans and you're out" policy to clamp down on "negative energy" stunting its growth.

She has since launched a website called "Be happy" to spread her message across the country.

"Unfortunately, Germans are the world's most inveterate whingers and bellyachers, particularly concerning things they cannot change like the weather or a late train," she said.

"I thought 'I have to do something to change this mentality'."

After a particularly bad bout of complaining at Nutzwerk, her company, "about everything from the traffic to the fact that a husband had forgotten a wedding anniversary", she decided to act, and took her employees to a comedy show.

"After a serious evening of constant laughter which did us a lot of good, I put it to them that we should ban moaning in the company from then on," said Mrs Wonneberger.

Employees now have a clause in their contracts which states: "moaning and whingeing is forbidden... except when accompanied with a constructive suggestion as to how to improve the situation".

So far three employees - two of whom had been given warnings, one of whom chose to go voluntarily, claiming she was being "censored" and had nothing to talk about any more - have been dismissed.

Mrs Wonneberger, whose motto is: "Those who moan rob others of energy and time", says that the company's turnover has doubled to £2 million thanks to the policy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/03/wmoan03.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/03/ixworld.html