Does Friendship Help or Hurt a Good Boss-Employee Relationship
Employees treasure a good relationship with their bosses, and vice versa. However, what many don’t know is that friendship does not promote a good employer-employee relationship. Yes, you read it right. Bosses should not be friends with their employees if they were to maintain a healthy working relationship. Here are several reasons why friendship between employer and employees can hurt the business.
Friendship Levels the Ladder
Understand that in friendship, friends are equal but this is not the case for boss-worker relationship. The boss is up there for a reason just like the employees are down there for a reason. If you insist on befriending your workers, you might as well
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However, what many don’t know is that friendship does not promote a good employer-employee relationship. Yes, you read it right. Bosses should not be friends with their employees if they were to maintain a healthy working relationship. Here are several reasons why friendship between employer and employees can hurt the business.
Friendship Levels the Ladder
Understand that in friendship, friends are equal but this is not the case for boss-worker relationship. The boss is up there for a reason just like the employees are down there for a reason. If you insist on befriending your workers, you might as well prepare for organizational meltdown. Your employees need to know you are boss and they are subordinate, where you are respected as leader or owner of the business and they follow your direction, trusting that you are leading them towards your goal as an organization.
Friendship Cultivates Office
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Friendship between employer and employees promotes favoritism in the eyes of those who are less close to you, no matter how much you try to deny it, others will see your closeness to only a few of your employees as a leverage they can never tap because they are not “friends” with you. If you can be close to some degree with a few of your workers, try to be that close to the rest of them to avoid conflict and feelings of favoritism.
Friendship with the Boss is Prone to Abuse
Employees who are friends with their bosses may think they have better chances for promotion because of the confidence with each other. After all, friends confide with each other about practically everything, even the most personal things. It is normal for employees to expect favors from their bosses, and more so when they are friends with their bosses. Your judgment might be overshadowed by this unhealthy boss-worker friendship when it comes to rating performance and granting promotions.
It can be very difficult not to become close with those who work with you for a long time. But as a boss, you know better than to cross the line if you want your business to succeed. It is never healthy for your business to be friends with
Kant deemed this type of friendship as a “pseudo friendship” meaning a not so genuine friendship. This is the most questionable type of friendship due to the basis in which it is built upon. It involves the pleasure we develop from each other 's company and not from each other 's happiness. People of the same background and profession in life are less likely to form such a friendship than people of different careers. Kant goes on to say “one scholar will not form a friendship of taste with another; because their capacities are identical; they cannot entertain or satisfy one another, for what one knows, the other knows too. But a scholar can form such a friendship with a businessman or a soldier”. For an example, a lawyer may not inquire friendship from a baseball player but he will inquire a friendship from a doctor. Kant then explains that “Provided the scholar is not a pedant and the businessman not a blockhead, each of them can talk entertainingly to the other about his own subject. I am not attracted to another because he has what I already possess, but because he can supply some want of mine by supplementing that in which I am lacking. In other words, variety and not uniformity is the source of the friendship of taste." Certain people are able to find happiness out of another persons experiences in which they lack. They thrive off of the conversation which they know little about to enhance
There are many types of friendships good ones and bad ones. For example in the novela “Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck George and Lennie are the main characters of this novela. George and Lennie face many obstacles throughout their journey. George helped Lennie and lead him throughout this journey. George is a good friend towards Lennie in my opinion because he does so much for him.
A friendship relies on the goodness of both people; if goodness is not present the friendship will cease to exist. Cicero uses many different instances in his book Laelius: On Friendship to explain how a friendship relies on the goodness of both people to survive. First he starts by talking about the types of friendships that come to an end when goodness ceases to exist. He explains that some friendships rely on advantages, but these friendships never last. He states that “if advantages were what kept friendships together, the removal of that advantage would mean that the friendship itself would cease to exist” (194). A friendship should rely on the qualities of both people, and not on the advantages you get from them. Cicero explains that “when a man shows kindness and generosity, his motive in doing so is not just too exact repayment” (193). Next he talks about friendships that fail due to one person asking too much of the other. He brings in the example of Tiberius Gracchus, “As for Tiberius Gracchus, when he was disrupting the government, we saw how Quintus
It just depends on who you are. It is shown many times throughout the book. It is shown with George and Lennie, with Candy, and with Crooks. They all have the same dream, or goal of getting some of their own land. Friendship brings, and keeps people together, it changes people’s actions (usually for the better), and gives people courage to stand up for themselves. But that doesn’t just happen in this book, but in real life as well. The powerful aspect of friendship changes people’s
A friendship is a special relationship between peoples , It occurs between friend that care about each other. In talking about friendship , the novella from John Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men”. Two friends George and Lennie ,they are trying to find a job together to complete their dream of having a farm. But Lennie is an adult size with a child's mind, he gets in trouble a lot and as his friend, George helping him solve the problem and taking care of Lennie. Later George and Lennie finds a new job , but George lies to the boss about the problem that Lennie has.
Sias, P. M., Pedersen, H., Gallagher, E. B., & Kopaneva, I. (2012). Workplace friendship in the
...s the foundation. Friends should “loyally admonish one another and always set one another right (Confucius 9).” Friends can be relied on no matter what the problem. The superior man gives his servants no ground for complaint that he makes insufficient use of them, but does not expect perfection.
Marion Winik’s “What Are Friends For?” expresses the characteristics of friendships and their importance in her existence. Winik begins by stating her theory of how some people can’t contribute as much to a friendship with their characteristic traits, while others can fulfill the friendship. She illustrates the eight friendships she has experienced, categorized as Buddies, Relative Friends, Work Friends, Faraway Friends, Former Friends, Friends You Love to Hate, Hero Friends, and New Friends. In like manner, the friendships that I have experienced agree and contradict with Winik’s categorizations.
Baumbauer, Lauren. "Balancing Friendship and Professionalism at Work." California Job Journal 28.1239 (2010): 7. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 31 Oct. 2011.
When making friends, you must choose the right ones by observing the person's qualities and how they behave. If the person behaves in a bad way, further away this person may lead you down the wrong path and get you into a lot of trouble. Incommensurate, If the person behaves in a good way, then they may be a good friend to have and lead you down the right path. Consequently, friendship is a very good thing to have with many positive and sadly, negative
The ways employees connect to the leader are important. If the employees do not like or trust the leader, this can impact the outcome of the job and create future hurdles. If you work for someone, you have to be able to relate to him or her. There has to be a formal relationship in order for the formal authority to be respected.
Friendships are so important. They have always been important; but it seems to be the most important in my opinion. We see how friendships play important roles throughout our life span. Friendships are defined and formed in each stage of life from infancy. These include early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood. Friendships grow from one stage to another. During this time friends become closer. Relationships start out as acquaintances and may stay like that for a period of time. An acquaintance is someone you know in passing. You may interact with this individual on occasion or on a regular basis. They are not your actual friend. They don’t fit in within the normal category of a friendship or relationship; just an acquaintance.
The long-running stereotype that men and women cannot be “just friends” is demonstrated from casual friends all the way to friendships at work. And with 61 percentage of women in the workplace in 1990 (The First Measured Century), it’s a stereotype that is getting harder to break. For years, development of men and women’s friendships has been a trope in TV and movies. Boy and girl become friends, guy develops feelings, girl gets boyfriend, guy becomes jealous and confesses feelings, and girl realizes she’s been in love with guy all along (Borreli, L. 2016). These expectations of men and women in friendships are bad for business though. Cross-sex friendships are crucial in the workplace. Friends in the workplace provide information, networking, and support that are invaluable for both job performance and satisfaction (Kimmel & Aronson 2014, 542). Bonds between cross-sex friendships are charging according to a study. Men and women often see each other as friends or confidants rather than romantic interests. There are other types of bonds than romantic connections that can occur and does occur between males and
The relationship between employer and employees plays a pivotal role in the performance of the organization. Employers and employees have certain responsibilities towards each other which facilitate a fair and productive workplace. Positive work relationships create a cooperative climate with effort towards the same goals. Conflict, on the other hand, is likely to divert attention away from organizational performance.
Employee relations traditional approaches are more successful then interpretive approaches. With the traditional approach to employee relations it is about discovering tactics that help support employees and encourage improved work performance. In regards to employee relations “one should support face, model productive conflict behavior, listen, facilitate employee voice, etc., to create a support communication environment for the employee” (Dailey, Organizational Communication, slide 9). Communication is an important basis for creating positive employee relations. Things such as face- saving, politeness, and mutual respect need to be displayed by leadership to help create positive employee relations. “Face threat is inherent to the leader/follower relationship” (Dailey, Face saving and politeness, slide 10). It is very important for leaders to be aware of this and how to use emotional intelligence as a way to build positive employee relations. “Supportive behavior of leaders has a positive effect on job satisfaction” (Wong & Law, 2002,