As an intern, I found myself underperforming at the start of many of my internships. I struggled to learn things quickly and complete tasks perfectly; therefore, holding multiple review meetings has become common. Sometimes I felt ashamed, other times I felt guilty. To my surprise, these similar but distinct feelings led to completely contrasting results. Researchers have extensively studied the implications of guilt and shame and their association with employee motivation and performance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Guilt in the workplace promotes motivation and increases employee performance. This feeling creates a strong desire to avoid past mistakes while avoiding disappointing others in the future. Unlike shame, guilt eliminates the connection between failure and incompetence or worthlessness. Instead, it facilitates increased confidence because it motivates employees to perform better and achieve higher goals in the future. In a study by Flynn and Schaumberg (2012), it was found that guilt-prone individuals were often more successful due to their desire to constantly improve, unlike their peers who were less guilt-prone. In addition to being more successful, they are also more likeable, which translates into positive feedback like receiving help, more opportunities, and better peer reviews. From this, it can be safely inferred that performance failures can be mitigated by feeling guilty, as this increases employee motivation and performance. Management must foster an environment that embraces guilt and moves away from shame because much better results are achieved. While the influence of guilt increases an individual's motivation to improve their performance and productivity in the workplace, the consequences of shame have negative results on the psychological state of mind of employees. This leads to a substandard level of performance and lower productivity while working. One study describes shame as a trigger that causes individuals to blame their character rather than focusing on a particular behavior and its subsequent results as the primary attribution for their mistake. Such thoughts can potentially cause an individual to feel helpless and incompetent; thus, one can detach oneself from demanding tasks instead of taking an extra step to combat the obstacle. This level of discomfort can lead to abandoning tasks performed in error to escape the stressful situation of shame. An empirical study further supports this by illustrating a clear correlation indicating a link between shame and decreased motivation. In two samples of Dutch salespeople, there are notable correlations between shame and lower sales. The researchers explained that the decline in sales came from disengagement as a way to protect yourself instead of fixing a mistake. There is undoubtedly concrete evidence suggesting a strong correlation between feelings of shame resulting from performance and decreased employee motivation and productivity. Even if evoking guilt among employees is much more beneficial than shame; increasing feelings of guilt without increasing shame is quite difficult. Whether an individual feels guilt or shame depends on their perceived control over the situation. This..