A relationship based on mutual trust and openness is essential for a strong workplace culture. It can be difficult sometimes for personnel to talk for fear of backlash. However, establishing respectful relationships in the workplace benefits everyone.
For many people, the office is like a second home, spending a major percentage of the day in office. Sometime we spend more time with our coworkers than with our family members. When you are working in a thriving professional environment, you’ll notice that employees are taking possession for their actions and attitudes. You’ll see your entire team cooperating on developments and contributing propositions to solve problems.
On the contrary, you might be with talented and productive people who act in the worst way, unintentionally, or in jest, and, from a standpoint, actually adversely affect your bottom line.
Deadly workplaces are full of confusion, lack of focus and mutual trust, and a general malaise that “this is the way it’s always been done” because change can often be difficult and it requires a time commitment which can be hard to come by. But a positive and flexible culture can be cultivated by balancing negotiation and give-and take compromises.
We all have our hives, where we think, react, interrelate, problem-solve, and lead. We hide, we withdraw, and we hurt others inadvertently through our words or behaviour.
However, people who’ve never had the feeling that things are slipping beyond their control, are probably staying safely within habitual, comfortable ways of thinking and acting. Those who see themselves as fully formed and capable of responding appropriately to any crisis that circumstance throws their way are in stasis.
So we should never lose the sense that we are masqueraders struggling in the shade, trying to draw meaning from conflicting and often smoky experiences. To feel this is to open up permanent possibilities for change and development in our practices. If we are not transparent and open about our situation, the advice we will receive will be flawed because it is neither based on the truth nor reflecting any facts.
I think everyone experiences this, and some people more severely than others, depending on their life experiences, anxieties, and stresses they’re faced with. Sometimes, the anxiety and stress is so bad that it leaves deep scars that take a long time to heal.
Someone once suggested to me that it is much easier to lessen negativity by lighting it with positive energy. And to do this, we have to let people know how much we care for them, trust and love them, and therefore, frustration or misunderstandings will be alleviated. Moreover, a disagreement is a sign of a complex picture, which demands the power that lies within ourselves.
There are so many stories about people acting in untrustworthy and unethical ways -- the relationship based on mutual trust and openness gives us some confidence to tackle this as we work together in a field that is not known for trust and compassion. Besides, professionals will feel empowered if an open-door policy is brought forward to listen to their issues and concerns but they must be consistent, genuine, and easy to perceive.
Not to mention that we also make assumptions about the intentions behind a person’s behaviour, and, as we all know, assumptions are often wrong. For example, teachers may think the authority made a particular decision based on some random facts rather than what’s best for them. If we don’t feel psychologically safe to question our assumptions and expectations with each other, trust flies out the window and our relationships suffer.
To transform an institution and to build the trust among the staff, there should be safety to speak one’s mind, to discuss with openness and honesty about what is and isn’t working, to make collective decisions, to take risks, and to fail, in order to eventually, succeed.
Nasrin Pervin is currently working as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English and Modern Languages, North South University. She is also a doctoral student of the University of Glasgow, Scotland.