“Pissed-off Employees!” Do You Have Any?

It has been said that the definition of a “plaintiff” is a “pissed-off employee”. The more you communicate with your employees, the more you walk and talk the hallways, and the more your relationships with your employees are valued within the bounds of existing law, the more successful your business will be and the more likely it is that you can avoid employment disputes. Valuing, being responsive to, and maintaining your inter-personal relationships with your employees, customers, clients, vendors, and business partners will still prove to be the most important precursor to a successful bottom line.

What should you as an employer take away from this blog post? The rapid explosion of social media, and its impact on the workplace, will never take away from the value of true inter-personal relationships. As great as today’s advances are, it doesn’t always have to be about apps, status updates, and mass communication from behind a keyboard. It also doesn’t mean that we need to give into technology at the expense of our interpersonal relationships, and the face-to-face communications that still must take place.

Individually, we are no different than we are professionally. We spend so much time connecting to someone who is not in front of us, that it’s easy to ignore what is right in front of us. We are so worried about tomorrow and next week, that the happy, meaningful and productive parts of today go unnoticed. We are so obsessed with typing to the world in words and pictures about where we are and what we’re doing, that we’re not at all focused on precisely where we are, what we’re doing, and who we’re doing it with, or for. To me, we are successful – professionally and individually – through the relationships right in front of us.

So maybe for this 2014, we can find even an hour to put down the BlackBerry and iPhone, get to that e-mail or text in a little while, and keep the terrific picture we were about to post solely in our own heads for now. Enjoy the moment right in front of us, as it will always be about those relationships.I greatly appreciate the time you took to read my blog last year, and I hope that I have provided you with some useful, informative, and perhaps occasionally entertaining insights on the interaction between you and your employees. I look forward to continuing that effort in 2014.

Note: As a reminder, my weekly Podcast is up and running. We have done three Podcast and we are starting to get calls already! They are posted every Saturday on www.pottsandassociates.com. We take calls for taping every third Saturday so mark your calendars (the next taping will actually be on February 15th, 2014). If you would like to call in and ask a question or simply make a comment, the number is 855-4 J POTTS or 855-457-6887 or you can email your question to Listenup@jameswilliampottsllc.com and we will answer it on the air.