“Paying your Dues”

While those in management positions often feel that they have paid their dues and are justified in their many perks, they need to realize that they set the tone for behavior in a company. While you might put in the extra hours over the weekend, if your employees see you cutting out halfway through the day for shopping or a round of golf, they will take that to be the work ethic that is expected.

While a manager shouldn’t have to explain their every action to employees, you should be sure that they understand when items are work related. When it’s a golf tournament, is it golf with a client for meeting purposes? If so, then that’s understandable. If not, why are you doing it during work hours?

Applying different rules to yourself than you apply to your employees is an easy way of lowering morale in the workplace. While it’s unlikely to see your employees walk out for a game of golf in the middle of the day, there are a thousand smaller ways that they can handle their own personal business during work hours. Be it slightly longer lunches, personal calls, internet surfing, or many more things.

While a certain amount of cross-over between work life and personal life is unavoidable, as a manager, you set the tone for how much will be tolerated. So, you should start by leaving yours at home unless you want your employees to follow in your footsteps.

Originally posted on May 13, 2006 @ 12:29 pm

Business

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