Great Circle

My wife Janine was making a great point the other day. In management herself, she was describing how - as a manager - it’s easy to make the demand that other workers comply with your own pet hates. In other words, those pet hates of the manager begin to take the form of regulations in the workplace.

She used an example of the lunchroom (or tea area). Whereas it annoys her that people put dishes and cutlery in the sink, no one else seems concerned by it. So, is it worth diverting time and energy into coercing people into rinsing the dish and placing it in the orderly pile on the drainer - especially at the risk of spreading the irritation she feels to other workers? This would make a mountain out of a molehill. (The dishes can be washed once a day on a roster - dirty stuff left in the sink for a few hours  really doesn’t impede the efficiency and effectiveness of the office).

How often at work have you seen pet hates or even personal opinions become either law or a bone of contention? They’re called pet for a reason. When they’re looked after, they only make the one who owns them feel better - everyone else gets annoyed at best. They waste time, money and effort that could be better spent elsewhere and they create relational frustration.

I don’t expect my whole street to look after my pet dog. I also don’t give her free rein to run around the neighbourhood. She has her place, at my house, where the kids fuss over her, where she can run and chase birds in the backyard to her heart’s content, where she can have her niche in the order of things.

So that thing at work that bugs you - is it a best practise standard as yet unreached … or is it just your own pet hate?