The Ugly Side Of Office Relationships

By Francis K Githinji

An office environment is always a good place to meet new people who have the same interests and sometimes, the goals and ambitions. An office is always a fertile ground for working colleagues to hit it off in a relationship. It is a place where you are bound to meet new people who will always be within your proximity. Office relationships are not bad and sometimes they work but what is their impact on the general performance of an organization? The most puzzling part about office relationships is that most of them degenerate into scandals. This has forced many organizations to discourage office relationships. They always advocate for mutual friendships where teamwork is propagated in order to achieve the goals of the organization.

Office relationships are known to overly affect an employees productivity. The relationship starts to take over the dedication and interest of an employee. The attention of the employee shifts from work related duties to relationship related obligations. Office relationships are enough to distract an employee from focusing on the set goals of the office. Productivity generally goes down as much time is spent and taken by this budding relationship. It does not matter whether it is the end of a relationship or the beginning of a new one, but all staff will form an opinion about a relationship that starts in the office. It has an overall effect of undermining and distracting the immediate team and beyond. The germination of a relationship marks the beginning of problems in an organization. This is because all employees can see what is going on and this affects their productivity.

Office relationships have also more complex issues to contemplate and consider. A growing relationship or affair in the office is a mine field literally speaking. First of all, does it conform to the organizations code of ethics? The mode of communication leaves a lot of loop holes that can be used against you if the relationship goes sour. This is especially true considering the endless and risky e-mails which are exchanged endlessly on a daily basis. The relationship gets intimate. Touching is no longer an option. But what are the legal risks involved? Remember the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal? Controversial insinuations of perceived unfair treatment and favoritism crop up to complete the show. It does not take a genius to see that once an office relationship goes bad these issues will land you in court as a harassment case.

It can have a devastating effect on the morale of the whole staff. An organization cannot have employees avoiding each other in the work place. There is the episode of colleagues who were in a long term relationship. The couple was very popular with the rest of the staff in the organization. When the couple eventually split, the whole staff was split into two opposing camps. Each camp supporting a different partner. The morale of the employees goes down to the last ebb. Office relationships affect the whole organization. It trickles down from the circle of the two love birds to the rest of the employees.

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How to Benefit From Your Workplace-Business Relationships

By Vincent Kituku

You are always an integral part of an association, whether you are aware of it or not. The largely overlooked associations are the employer-employee partnership and professional partnership. Your ability to thrive, in your professional endeavors, at all times depends on how healthy your association is. Your growth also means more benefits for your partner, whether an employer or a colleague with whom you exchange ideas, services or products.

In ecological studies, one is exposed to a variety of associations, including parasitic-where an organism, like blood suckers, feeds and survives at the expense of a host. The host may die thus leading to the death of the parasite. That's a detrimental association.

In a symbiotic relationship, both organisms survive and live together. A symbiotic relationship is the association where two different species live together, each benefiting, in one way or another, from its associate. Take a rhino and a certain species of birds-they live symbiotically. Each depends on the other for survival. The rhino has ticks that the bird needs for food. The bird helps the rhino in two ways. It remove ticks from the rhino's body and when it (the bird) sees an animal that might attack the rhino, it jumps up and down making the rhino know it is time to run for cover. They need each other.

If you build and treat your employer-employee partnership or professional association from a symbiotic relationship perspective, you increase your odds of always having a job, professional growth or business opportunities. The resources that you need to thrive under different circumstances will be within your reach in most cases.

Here are top on how to benefit from a symbiotic relationship.

1. Be governed by one motive-that, "What you do for yourself can get you by. What you do for others is what will get you ahead; whether in your profession, spiritual pursuits or relationships."

2. Know what the other party wants from the association. What skills do your think your employer needs to be profitable? What services, ideas or products does the other party want by associating with you?

3. You must be clear on what you want from the association before you waste your time, energy or even tangible resources.

4. Commit to give your best for the survival and thriving of the other party. Think about it, it's hard to be the first one to be downsized by a company that you have helped become profitable. It's hard for another party not to give you businesses if you have helped them succeed.

5. Always check with the other party to see whether or not it is still satisfied with your input, or your quality of services or products.

6. Be courageous enough to share ideas on how things can be improved, whether you are rewarded for your ideas or not.

7. Keep improving what you offer to the association, even when the improvement is not expected.

8. When things change, notify the other party before they learn about it from another source.

A leaders motivational keynote speaker and trainer, Dr. Vincent Muli Kituku, CSP works with organizations and individuals who want to increase their productivity, stay focused and have a sustained desire to make success a lifestyle and a choice. Vincent's inspirational speeches are catalysts for unlimited results that have led to Dr. Kituku being described as a research-based motivational speaker/trainer. His storytelling skills have won awards for both spoken and written words are attributed to improved morale, accountability, motivation and ownership by all employees. Dr. Kituku is one of the less than 7% speakers to earn the coveted Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) recognition, the highest designation presented by the National Speakers Association.

Wherever he speaks, people from all backgrounds agree that words cannot describe Vincent but that he must be experienced. His ability to captivate audiences with content, interaction and entertainment has made him not only a sought after speaker but an annual presenter for key organizations. No one is ever the same after listening and applying Dr. kituku's strategies and wisdom into their work and life endeavors.

The impact of Dr. Kituku's memorable speeches and workshops has propelled him into a league of his own. He has given presentations to Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 Companies including HP, CISCO, MICRON, and GENWORTH FINANCIAL. His insights have been sought after by Workforce Development Agencies, Association of Corporate Executives, Chambers of Commerce, Realtors, and National and International associations. He has worked with college football teams including the perpetual champions, the Boise State Football Team since 1998. He can be reached at http://www.kituku.com or by calling (208) 376-8724

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