As
Liliana sat one evening sipping her glass of fresh juice, she contemplated a
possible resignation due to the sustained challenges at the top and wondered
whether she had made the right decision to join senior management at the
company. She wondered whether it is ever possible to be an effective senior
manager and at the same time be friends with the staff you manage.
Listening
to people talk about their bosses at work, you would be tempted to imagine the
persons they are talking about are machines or systems that have no human blood
flowing through their veins. We are fond of saying all manner of things about
our bosses in a way that portrays them as inhumane and persons with no
feelings. And as you read this article, what words would you use to describe
your boss?
When we
think about our bosses, there are times when we imagine them as persons out to
no good. We think about them as people determined to make our lives more
challenging than it already is and hence consider them as part of our problems
in life. The thought of the boss elicits feelings of despair and
disillusionment as we at times feel like our lives would have been better off
were it not for the bosses. There are actually times when we imagine life would
have been better without the bosses. However, on situations when we have been
our own bosses, we have realized that bossing over people, including ourselves,
is never a walk in the park.
Liliana
has been a senior manager at a local bank over the last 15 years. Over this
period, she indicates that she has had to endure the frustration of
boss-branding from staff to an extent that she started almost feeling inhumane.
There are instances when the staff through the local associations had sent an
incriminating letter to the directors suggesting that she had lost touch with
the staff at the branch and had demanded for her removal or risk systematic
poor results.
It
later came to be realized that the issue had revolved around her refusal to
allow some staff to internally agree on making informal switches on their
working hours. Liliana had considered sticking to the bank policies and this
did not augur well with the staff. A hate campaign had hence started that
targeted her, both as a person and as the boss. Along the way, the staff
started speaking in low tones whenever she got to the banking hall and this was
truly intimidating. She felt isolated from the rest of the staff. This was
suicidal.
How
would she manage the staff who did not want to talk to her? She had her strong
feelings on what needed to be done to remedy the situation yet no one seemed to
open their space for her to explain herself. The rest of the staff were
convinced she was out to box them and deter their freedom while she considered
the best interests of both the staff and the company.
The disconnect
seems to arise from the perception among staff that bosses are never concerned
about the welfare of the junior staff. There is a general rumor that all that
employers are concerned about are the bottom lines and that they do all they
can to maximize on the profit and reduce on the cost even if that means
stepping on the toes of the workers.
It is
important to note that employers are also human. They are people with families,
with social lives and are equally maneuvering through life with the rising cost
of living. Bosses get affected when interest rates are raised arbitrarily and
are hence aware of the impact on the staff motivation and in most cases do all
they can to help mitigate the effects on the staff. All they yearn for in most
cases is a listening ear and a team of staff who would be interested in being
part of the solution to the problems they raise to the senior management.
Kahihu is an Organizational Development Practitioner
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