Kicker: Exploitation
Emotions can play havoc with office environment
The manager has to know who the employee is, what his/her personality is like, and how to deal with the person, because employers should ideally manage their employees according to their unique nature. If they do not distinguish one employee from another in this way, it would create a sensitive situation.
There are both advantages and disadvantages to having a closer relationship with one’s employer. The best way to build it is to make sure that your work is done perfectly. Employees can perform their jobs to the fullest, have a good attitude, and love their work as their own. This would lead to better results, as the employee would have a vested interest in only providing the best results, rather than have to work on building a relationship with his/her employer. Yes, for everyone’s peace of mind, it is essential to be comfortable in one’s workplace. It’s not bad to be friends with one’s manager or boss, but this should be within limits. This way, one’s respect and appreciation towards one’s boss would increase.
However, one of the drawbacks of getting to know too much about each other is that some employers may misuse people’s personal information. There is also the possibility that it might lead to the construction of romantic relationships, which could create other complications. If some people have personal problems, they might use emotional leverage on their manager, and ask for help. If the manager helps out someone even once, it would usually create a permanent situation of exploitation, where employees begin to use emotions to keep their jobs secure.
From Ms Sabreen Abdul Sakhi
Head of a customer service centre, based in Dubai
Kicker: Consequences
Judge employees by their skills, not their social media updates
Employees and employers can have good interpersonal relationships, but it needs to be up to a certain level only. Even the word ‘boss’, implies a really formal association. The minute you involve others in your personal life, you have to deal with emotions, and the repercussions of that can seep into workplace behaviour. I read a lot of psychology, and have found that giving people information about your life often results in them making judgments about how you live or behave outside the workplace. It can get messy.
Even on social media, for instance, I don’t think employers and employees have to necessarily become Facebook friends. Imagine if one day, an employee posts pictures of herself having fun at a party, and she is delayed at work the next day for a completely different reason. When she approaches the employer, he would assume the delay was because she was out the previous night, and make certain unwarranted judgments. Personal photographs and updates on social media are not something your managers really need to see. It’s a manager’s responsibility to know each employee, and learn about each person’s skill or strength. They do not need to know them personally to realise that. Employers could assign tasks to employees, and based on the delivered result, discover whether someone is better at strategising, whether someone works better in a team, or if someone else has a head for numbers. They would arrive at the results through task-based assignments, not from knowing them personally, and this is a far better way to do so.
From Ms Bhumi Joshi
Account manager in an advertising firm, based in Dubai
Kicker: Flexibility
Setting priorities helps maintain work-life balance
We live in a world where a person’s interests outside of work, might create an advantage for him/her within the workplace. Professional lives have diversified since the 1990s, the decade in which most Millennials were born. Now, as they come into the workplace, they want their managers to engage with them on a closer level, especially with regard to their personal lives. Whether we like it or not, our personal lives are somehow connected with our professional ones, based on certain factors, such as time, friends, family and health. Time is inversely related to our work and personal life.
Our management of responsibilities and performance towards work decreases when our personal life becomes affected. An example would be when a family member falls sick. Managers should forecast near-term workloads for each of their employees, so that it gives employees a sense of predictability in their roles, and flexibility within their working hours. This way, they do not have to rush to make last-minute adjustments at home.
It’s not a manager’s job to solve an employee’s personal issues or family-related problems, but given that employees have demands and priorities outside the office that may affect their work, managers need to have an interest. That interest might lead employers to work with employees, to design a work schedule that allows them to get their work done, while simultaneously attending to their personal needs. This kind of approach would not just satisfy a manager, but also help employees find ways to navigate what’s important to them outside of work, while managing their responsibilities. The organisation would benefit, too, and so would the team’s productivity and morale.
From Ms Aisha Khan
Pharmacist, based in Sharjah
