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Leading people: A sober staff member's secret ..
By Debra Allcock Tyler, Third Sector, 7 May 2008
Socialising with staff can be great, but take care when there is alcohol involved.
To pub or not to pub? That is the manager's question. Whether 'tis nobler in the end to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous drunkenness or take flight against a sea of staff troubles ...
It's a perennial dilemma for managers everywhere. There are many advantages to hanging out informally with staff. Among other things, it helps you to develop a better understanding of the relationships between people. They see you as someone who can function outside the office. You get to air your thoughts and ideas informally. You get to hear stuff you would otherwise probably not know about. But there's also a downside.
Don't get too comfortable
I was having this conversation with one of my staff only last week. We were at the pub for a leaving do and she said they really enjoyed seeing me in a social setting and would like me to do it more often. But here's the thing: they quite like me at the moment. I haven't done anything horrible to them recently. There haven't been any of those hard decisions lately that can be so difficult for staff to understand, such as cutbacks, redundancies, disciplinary cases or dismissals. Of course, that won't necessarily last.
We might believe that we are hip chicks or cool dudes, but for our people we are always the boss. And they have expectations of the boss, which may not be fair, but exist nonetheless. They will remember what we have said, even if both parties were a bit merry at the time. It may be possible for people to forget temporarily that you are the boss, but at some point realisation of the horrible truth will resurface - for both of you.
Over-socialising may put your staff in a position of feeling confident to say things they would not say if they weren't feeling pot-valiant. That can put them in an uncomfortable position when they wake up the next morning. You are faced with the dilemma of trying to work out whether you should act on what they said or ignore it.
So by all means go - but don't stay too long, don't get drunk and never, ever, dance naked on the table.
- Debra Allcock Tyler is chief executive of the Directory of SocialChange and a trustee of MedicAlert
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