Radhakrishnan Chettour
We
as human beings automatically make observations through out the day. Some of
these observations are good and some are bad. These observations are also known
as our perception of a person, place, or situation. We all know we shouldn’t
judge someone the first time you meet them yet you’ve heard that little voice
in your head making a comment and forming an opinion when you shouldn’t. That
is your perception of the person you are meeting. These perceptions don’t stop
on the street when you walk by someone new they go on through out the day, the
week and the year.
The
perceptions you have of others even overflow into the work place and can cause
conflicts with other coworkers. When people begin to share their thoughts with
other coworkers they open up the door for their coworkers to spread the gossip.
This can cause enormous amounts of animosity amongst coworkers. There is also
the issue of people getting involved in other workers lives whether its work
related or not. They form opinions, make accusations, and cause drama.
All
of these problems are due to people forming perceptions of others when they
shouldn’t. Workers should try to avoid idle gossip and concentrate on the tasks
at hand. After all you are being paid to work not to congregate at the water
cooler.
A
good example of how perceptions and conflicts in the workplace affect real
people is about this man I used to work with who was very well liked by everyone.
One day one of the coworker decided to spread a rumor that he was not there for
a company organized special function. He
started spreading the rumor that how the man could miss the function when he is in such
a position. The rumors started flying around the office that the man was missing
when the function was going on and nobody would say anything to him about it.
In my opinion it doesn’t matter at all if the man was or wasn’t but it gave the
office something to chat about. Finally when the gossip reached the top level management,
the management called him and conducted a query. The man explained that he was
present over there and working sincerely for making the function a true success.
But the ultimate result was one person’s lying/gossip made the man embarrassed.
It really hurt the man’s feelings and starts thinking that how should I work
among such gossip mongers. The top level management also failed to take
adequate measure against the person who started spreading the rumor even after
identifying. The practice of the person became a habit and went on spreading rumors
against the man. Finally the man ended up quitting his job because nobody
looked at him the same. The worst part was he not only knew the man was there
but even given instruction to that man to carryout some work related to the
seating of guests for the function and the rumors spread by a coworker made
this man leave his job. And if this kind of rumor mongers is at the top
management level it will spoil the whole working environment and the company
will miss right people and finally in the bus there will be only torch bearers
of rumor mongers.
It’s
the responsibility of the top management and all the people working in the
company to identify gossip mongers and to make it known to everyone that such
people won’t be tolerated. For achieving a non-gossip company environment, management
at the top level should make sure that all actions and deeds are transparent
and every one in the company has knowledge about what’s happened, what’s happening
and what’s going to happen. 90% of the gossip can be prevented by this lone
action.
This
just goes to show that opinions and perceptions of people are not always right
and I believe they do not belong to the workplace.
For your glory and success!
Read, Learn and Flourish!
