The Playground Vs the Work Place!

The last post I wrote about bullying in the workplace prompted a lot of people to come forward and say they have been victims of bullying by a boss. When I have conversations with my daughter about the school playground, then conversations with family and friends about their workplaces, these conversations have a lot of similarities. In both scenarios there can be hierarchy backstabbing, gossiping etc. However in some instances children are often spoken to by teachers in a more respectful way than how line employers talk to employees.

Unlike when I was at school, nowadays teachers take extra caution in how they speak to children, with a lot of emphasis on positive reinforcement. Even when correcting inappropriate behaviour, teachers emphasise on the positives first and try not to make it seem like a telling off. There is now a shift away from humiliation, making an example and name calling to children. If anything raised voices and negative words are highly discouraged. Consideration is given to the long term impact this would have on a child. Children are encouraged to think for himself and even find their own way around stressful situations, without always involving teachers.

Unfortunately this is not happening in the workplace and a lot of employees are taking the old school ma'am approach with their employee’s, going beyond micromanagement. This was very prevalent in the last organization I worked for. When organisations face issues in the workplace such as poor performance, high turnover and absenteeism they need to look at their own behaviour, not just label employees who are easy targets.

When employees are undermined in the workplace this can lead to loss of self esteem and motivation. One particular organisation I worked for monitored lunch breaks, office banter and even toilet breaks very closely. When targets were not being met there was an old school environment of telling off. There was absenteeism, poor performance and high turnover. Including myself many ex employees have gone onto become self employed.

Many line managers use the arguments they are running a business and merely performing duties as a line manager. There is however a way of performing these duties. During my own studies as a Postgraduate in Human Resource Management I did in depth research into Daniel Goleman's work about Emotional Intelligence, which includes having an awareness of other people’s feelings. The issue is some managers are intelligent and skillful at their jobs but lack emotional intelligence. If as a result of some light office banter there is a happier work environment this should be encouraged, unless there is unprofessional behaviour. Going deeper if there are staff members chatting too much rather than working, maybe they need to look at whether they are getting enough stimulation in the workplace. Going back to the example of children, they often misbehave when they are bored and lacking stimulation.

A large number of people are choosing self employment these days rather than working for someone. Self employment is not an easier option by any means. However from personal experience one of the appealing aspects is being in charge of your own destiny and not having your self worth chipped away by anyone else. You justify your workload and targets to yourself, not a boss who talks to you like a child. If work is getting heavy there is the option of chatting to a friend and going for lunch without being scrutinised.

If there are bosses out there thinking of bringing an employee in to give them a good dressing they should learn from how school teachers operate nowadays. Think of that employee’s strengths and look at the root cause of the behaviour, exercising more emotional intelligence rather than micro management, as the bigger picture should be looked at. Line managers argue that they are running a business but to run that business they need a happy, healthy work force that attends work and never wants to leave the organisation.