by Lateralus

Created on: February 15, 2009

I have managed a couple of restaurants and a landscaping company and I find if your employees don't like you then they won't respect you and if they don't respect you then they won't follow your rules when you are not around. We all know that you can't be at your business at all times and sometimes we have to depend on our employees to help our business run well. I find that if your employees like you then they are more happy to come to work and they feel more comfortable around you. The happier your employees are and the better mood they are in the more productive they can be.

This does not mean that you have to do everything they want you to do or make them always happy. The main point is the to what's best for the company, but it is a relationship and in any relationship there needs to be compromise. If your employee is productive and makes a 100% effort to do their best then you should do things to make them want to be there. You don't have to do special things for them or treat them better than anyone else. You don't have to tell them that they are better than a fellow employees or that the quality of their work is better than it really is.

If your are nice and and treat them with dignity and respect then you can get their best usually and that will reflect in the companies image. Your company is only as good as the people who run it. You don't have to be their friend and take them out to dinner or buy them things, btu you do need to treat them like they are real human beings. Treat them how you would want to be treated.

I have been on both sides. I have been a manager or boss at alot of the places I have worked, but I have also been in the lowliest of positions, cleaning toilets and cleaning up after other people. I have cooked food and wiped counters and I understand the degradation one feels doing these jobs. I also know that while doing those jobs that if my boss understood how I felt and tried to make my job more comfortable to me at least by treating me with respect that I will be happier and put more effort into my job.

In the end it is better for both employee and manager to like each other. It really shouldn't matter if it is in the workplace; it is a relationship and a relationship has to be handled with care. Each person should treat each other with dignity and respect and in the end karma makes everything alright. We can't go through life making enemies with anybody because in the end it will only hurt ourselves.

Learn more about this author, Lateralus.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.