R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I love that Aretha Franklin song Respect.  R-E-S-P-E-C-T - Find out what it means to me.  So what does respect mean to your employees?  What does respect mean to you?  

I hear a lot of complaints from employees regarding their bosses saying they don’t feel like they are respected. What exactly does that mean?  Wikipedia says: Referring only to a person-Respect is a positive feeling of esteem or deference for a person and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem.  

So, when you are working with your employees are you showing respect and receiving that in return? Do you listen to your employees ideas and give them merit?  When things go wrong are you a finger pointer- laying the blame on staff and yelling at them?  I have had employees tell me of how their bosses yell at them.  Yell at them?  Wow! 

Not only does a boss who yells at a staff person have no respect for their staff but little for themselves.  How do you even promote a positive work environment if staff always feels like they will get blamed for issues or worse yelled at by their boss?

Everyone deserves to have a work environment where they can feel comfortable, bring up ideas and be expected to pitch in when there is a problem, instead of being told it’s their fault.  No one wins and nothing is accomplished when that happens and chances are if you haven’t seen it already, get ready for a large staff turnover and expect it to keep happening as long as you have no respect for the people you hire.  

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Suzanne Cormier

Executive Director

BizWorks (Small Business Incubator)

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