Perhaps the greatest reason why joking about job security is so bad is that it forces an irreversible wedge between the employee and the employer or team. If a

Perhaps the greatest reason why joking about job security is so bad is that it forces an irreversible wedge between the employee and the employer or team. If a person believes their job is in peril they lose focus of their work and shift focus into matters of personal security. People tend to over emphasize the nature of their employment as a matter of personal identity, accomplishment, and life progress. When those things are in peril they become more important problem to fix than their assigned responsibilities, work/life balance, or even familial relationships which can snowball into further problems. While this is frequently more a matter of personal vanity than finances the problem is still there and it’s socially contagious, which is toxic. Counter intuitively I have found many people are less emotionally troubled about losing their jobs when the harm is purely financial. That isn’t to say it is free of stress, but rather there are fewer panic moments.