FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Juli Smith, President of The Smith Consulting Group – A member of the Sanford Rose Associates® network of offices, Featured in Rochester Business Journal, Managers Should be Cautious About Mingling with Staff Members
Plano, TX 7/21/2017
By: Kathleen Driscoll
“I joined this company recently as a manager and team leader and have been surprised to see other managers socializing and hanging out a lot with their people after work. I came from a more traditional company and am not really comfortable doing that. But it seems to be part of the culture here. And I’m afraid if I don’t, I will be perceived as not “fitting in” somehow. To me, there has always been a strict line between the personal and professional but maybe that’s not as true these days as it used to be? Please advise.”
And many people like it that way. According to a 2013 Robert Half survey, six in 10 managers said they felt uncomfortable being friended by their bosses or employees they oversee. And that extends to social media, too. Nearly 50 percent of survey respondents said they preferred to not connect with coworkers on Facebook, compared to 41 percent in 2009.No one can blame you for feeling uncomfortable or awkward about hanging out with your team after hours. Managers and employees have traditionally kept their distance when it comes to personal friendships.
“I don’t hang out with my employees after work,” says Juli Smith, president of the Smith Consulting Group, a recruiting firm in Jackson, Mich., an affiliate of Sanford Rose Associates. “It’s OK to do a social event once in a while, a barbecue or a lunch, but to go out, as in ‘where is everyone meeting up for drinks tonight?’ I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
Read more: http://rbj.net/2017/07/07/managers-should-be-cautious-about-mingling-with-staff-members/
