What is an “ideal” relationship with colleagues?
Everyone understands them differently. Some people at work are comfortable if colleagues smile at a meeting, do not try to stick a knife in the back, and do not climb into the soul. For others, it is important to be on the same wavelength with colleagues, drink coffee together all week and cocktails on Fridays, know that you can share personal problems and get good advice.
Whatever the idea of a “fairly good” relationship with colleagues, the quality and warmth of communication will depend on yourself — on your willingness to invest in communication, show empathy and support, turn a neutral or friendly connection with strangers into a warm and friendly one.
And yet there is a certain “hygienic minimum” that allows you not to cross the border, beyond which neutral-working relations turn into toxic-conflict ones.
Neutral relations with colleagues
- Don’t gossip — especially about each other.
- Do not discuss the manager in a negative way — colleagues may convey your words or a biased attitude will be created towards you.
- Do not substitute colleagues. If it happened by accident, immediately ask for forgiveness and offer help.
- Do not complain about your colleagues to the manager and do not tell them about their minor mistakes. Sometimes there is a need to report an impending work disaster, but first, try to solve the problem with the culprit.
- Do not flatter — people will quickly recognize flattery and will begin to suspect you of unscrupulous intentions.
- Do not say out loud value judgments concerning the nationality, gender, age, weight, appearance, personality, character, habits of a person. Give an assessment of the work of colleagues only when you are directly asked — by them themselves or by your general boss.
- Do not try to educate and re-educate anyone.
- Do not join alliances, do not join one of the conflicting parties. Maintaining neutrality is not easy: at first, you will feel dislike from colleagues, but after a while, everyone will get used to your position, and then it will noticeably ease your working days.
- Don’t talk about your life too much — for some people, this is a violation of personal boundaries.
Friendly relations with colleagues
If you spend a lot of time at work and have lost friends outside of it, and colleagues are interesting and friendly people, you can consciously strengthen and develop relationships.
- Take part in informal gatherings and organize them yourself.
- Bring treats for colleagues to work-if you love and know how to cook.
- Try to get to know people better — look for common interests, similar hobbies, and dreams. Even memories will work-for example if you went on vacation to the same country.
- Share professional findings, insights, and ideas that may be useful to colleagues.
- If possible, help not only in the office but also outside it.
- Take the initiative in” out-of-work ” (for example, charity, volunteer) projects of colleagues.
How do people of different generations get along in a team
The trend of default respect and “untouchability” of people’s decisions just because they are older is gradually passing. The essence of the entire working conflict of generations does not change. And it lies in the fact that older people consider themselves more experienced and often just let down their decisions, preferring not to waste time on explanations. And younger people, who already have the critical thinking, can’t just perform tasks. They are taught what to think before doing, and not to accept all incoming information as the ultimate truth. Therefore, generational differences in the workplace is one of the most common problems in companies.
The reason for the conflict of generations is the change of values and moral foundations.
As a preventive measure of such conflicts, it is important to maintain an atmosphere of communication in the organization, when all employees learn something from each other, providing feedback, recognizing the value of each employee.
Interesting Related Article: “7 Top Team-Building Activities“