How to handle workplace Gossips

If there is one thing it is unavoidable in the workplace – it is gossips. You could either be the subject of the gossips, or you could be the one instigating the gossip.

However, let’s not forget the person subject to gossip has negative consequences – whether is it affecting their own career and reputations, or being emotionally affected by it. Worse, the person subject to being gossip could be ostracized at work.

If you are verbally harassed, these strategies could help.

Address it, tactfully

Instead of the usual practice of avoidance, addressing the person who instigated the gossip could work. However, the approach should not be done in a confrontational nor aggressive way. Being confrontational would only lead to fuel more gossips among your colleagues.

This is the right way to address gossips, especially if it is due to untrue speculations. The instigator should be able to understand that you would want to clarify the speculations. You could also self-reflect on yourself upon hearing the gossips. If you feel there is some truth in the gossips, or how most of the people perceive you to be – you could use it as a self-reflection as how others perceive you affects their motivation to collaborate and work with you.

If you are the one who are instigating the gossip, you should always remind yourself that if you are not able to bring yourself to say things in the person’s presence, then you should avoid that as a topic to others.

Don’t be one of them

If you are one of those who have been gossiping at the work place, you have lost the right to ask others to stop gossiping about you, or making you the subject of the gossip. One should never solve the problem of being the subject of gossip by gossiping about others.

This will only lead to negative repercussions, as you will likely lead to confusing signal to your colleagues and friends around you.

Report It

If the gossips have become too unhealthy, and you feel you are not able to manage it on your own, you can talk to the Human Resource department – especially if you feel if it is harassment.

Companies do not encourage gossips, anyway as it dampens morale and productivity. 

Managing People at Work

In our course of work, we come across different across people from different walks of life. We might meet people who are at different end of the spectrum – from the very ambitious to the plain lazy.   

It is fair to say that workplaces do not bring out the best in people, yet it consists most of our daily hours. Here are some tips to manage your emotions, and expectations.

Be Patient

Once a while, we need to be constantly reminded that we have different moods throughout the day. It is impossible for one to be constantly optimistic and positive about life. Do remember that if you are experiencing a disheartening colleague, or even an unreasonable one, you should not be judging the person as his entire character. Instead of being judgmental, you can choose to be tolerant.

Instead, it would not hurt to show a little bit of a concern to understand the reasons why they are not in the best of moods, and to be supportive. This helps you make more friends than foes.

Say what you feel, constructively

Some people are not as sensitive as the rest, and colleagues could have affected you without being aware of their actions. Share your thoughts to people who are being overly critical on others. This might help to heighten self-awareness which would lead to either them being very apologetic, or defensive.

This would still be a form of negative reinforcement and your colleagues would subconsciously consider twice before being overly critical on others.

Manage expectations

This would mean either managing your expectations, or managing your colleagues’ or superiors’ expectations. If your colleagues, or superior would expect you to be on the ball always – even during after work hours, or when you are on a holiday – you might want to sit down with them to personally share with them on their expectations and to see how other ways you can work together.

With these three tips, you should be able to handle your emotionally needs as well as your colleagues in understanding the different people. It is always important to remind yourself, that past situations have led people to be who they are – including yourself.

The right time to hire.

The government in Singapore is always encouraging young entrepreneurs to establish a business on their own. With more of such entrepreneurs around, the chances of establishing a successful company is higher and this would also mean a reduction in unemployment rates.

It is all good for the society, but it is a stressful situation for the entrepreneurs themselves.  It is always a stressful situation and as entrepreneurs, we have to make calculated risk and proceed with caution. We are not just looking at fixed cost, such as salary and benefits – but many sources of overhead as well such as training and development costs. This is based on the assumption that the employee is performing as the figures will only get worse if the employee is not performing – where all the training and development cost dedicated to the employee not just become a sunk cost, but businesses have to think of severance pay (and sometimes litigation), but also the time and effort dedicated to finding a replacement. Time always means money.

What is the required skillset?

What is the position you need to fill, depends on the skillset of the founders, as well as the industry of the new business. These are the questions you have to ask yourself:

• Are you lacking in a skillset
• Is the lack of skillset preventing the business from going further
• Must the skillset be hired or should it just be outsourced

With all these information, you have to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each. Services that are outsourced do not need to be managed – in comparison to bringing an employee onboard. Apart from the main difference in the budget, services that are outsourced are guaranteed results, whereas the results of the employee you bring in might vary. You will also think about the knowledge set whereby do the market have sufficient knowledge of the product or industry you are dealing in, and how confidential is your knowledge? The more confidential it is, the more you will want to do it by yourself. If the vendors have more expertise, knowledge and experience, you should consider outsourcing the service to them. Of course, at this time, you should also be thinking the frequency whereby this service is required. One such consideration would be the number of times you have to rebrand your company’s logo and website.

Who is the right candidate to bring onboard?

If you have decided to hire, the next step would be to think of who should you hire. These are some of the following questions you can think of

• Have the incumbent worked in smaller companies before?
• How aligned are the goals to the company with the incumbent?
• Is the candidate an individual contribution, or someone who requires hand-holding

Based on our experiences, companies prefer credentials – be it experience, or educational qualifications. However, companies should always be evaluating on the staying power of such candidates as well as on whether the incumbent will be a good fit with the company’s culture. Employees who have been used to working in big companies could have been used to a structured environment, with dedicated routine tasks whereas in a small organization setting – incumbents could likely be told to assist in practically anything and everything.

However, we have come across candidates who prefer a less bureaucratic environment because it would also mean less politics. With lesser competition, it could mean room for career progression.  We are also surprised when some candidates share that they would like to take up on the role because they are able to learn more.

Conclusion

Ultimately – You have to do your own self-assessment of the candidate. One of the ways you could use your assessment is by getting your existing employees who are well versed with your culture to recommend someone else into the company. Those who are doing the recommendation will be assessing the suitability of the new entrant as well. Or you could widen your pool of potential candidates with us, and we could do the assessment for you – with a fee of course.

Of course, we would prefer the latter.

The Do's and Dont's Of Getting To Know A New Colleague

When someone new arrives at the office, the first thought that goes through everyone’s mind will either fall under the “who is this” category or the “how well can I work with this person” camp.

An everyday office unit can be hard to penetrate, especially if it is a highly organised and closely-knitted one, where everyone works together as a single corporate organism. Take a moment to step into the newbie’s shoes, and understand what is considered appropriate (and inappropriate) when it comes to welcoming another.

DO's

Do take time to “break the ice” and find out more about them. There is nothing more uplifting than the feeling of being accepted and acknowledged by others, especially during the first week. Take this time to also assert who has the potential for growth in the company. Invite the new colleague out with the usual work crew, and as the rules state: the newbie always foots the bill.

Do establish a sense of company culture and/or rules from the start. This is helpful if the company upholds a strong sense of individualistic culture — new colleagues have new ideologies that may or may not add value to the company. It is also easier to fix the ground rules before something happens, and they have to be changed.

DONT's

Don’t confront them directly. Direct confrontations during the first week can seem like a personal attack, or unfriendly warning, to the new colleague. It can also escalate if the newbie retaliates the confrontation with an aggressive front — creating an impression that can be irreversible. This can create a downhill slide of relations in the office, where the primary misunderstanding can never be cleared for a better working relationship.

Don’t spread stories about their personality or personal lifestyle. It is hardly surprising that the newbie is recognised in the same field previously, but avoid using these past impressions to form a present judgement. People constantly change, and it is not fair to benchmark a person by looking back, instead of going forward to create a new impression that is concrete to the person today.

Don’t take advantage of their newbie status in the company. This can backfire very quickly once the newbie catches on, and the tension will never really go away. Sending him/her to get a cup of juice is fine, but getting 10 cups of juice throughout the day is an abuse of power. There is never a restart button once things sour, so instead of trying to take advantage, aim to work together and share the workload. 

What Do You Look For In A Job? Here’s 5.

As much as most candidates look for career growth, I always come across candidates who are not able to explain or understand the kind of ‘growth’ they are seeking. What is it that is important to each individual when you move on to the next role?

However, it is good to consider whole lot of aspects while you try to figure out whether to take on the role. What matters most is, you need to be sure of the job expectations before you move into the role. Else, you might fall into a pit hole and regret the move because you did not make it clear.

Advancement

Always look into the companies on what are the kind of roles they can offer you to advance in the next few years while you are with them. Is there possibility of getting horizontal or vertical move into the role?

Always look internal first, before you explore external opportunities. There are some unknown factors when you move into a new role in a new organisation. Yet, internal opportunities give assurance that you know the culture and people.

Satisfaction and Trust

You spend minimally eight hours at work and you just want to make sure that you enter office each day, feeling great. You do not want anyone to be looking over your shoulders day in, day out with the work that you’ve been assigned to. At the end of the day, if you face get fatigued easily, you will have the tenancy to look out for your next job.

Stability

This may not be the best thing that could happen in the recent years, companies themselves are not able to ensure its stability, this is by far one of the top choices of job seekers. You can only use the past year’s company performance as a guide to move forward because it cannot guarantee the similar performance in the next few years.

Environment

Observe the people who are walking past you or even at the reception, look out for a similar pattern in the workers. Do they give you a smile or even say ‘Hello!’. They might not know you but the interaction and image that are portrayed do say something about the company.

Benefits

You do not want to end up taking lesser than your current role by looking into your overall remuneration package. Some may be enticed by the amount that was given to you in your basic salary, yet when you look into the other benefits, you are getting so much lesser than what you have. For instance, if the company does not offer health insurance, you will realise that you will be spending more out of your pocket.

3 Tips to Master Casual Friday Outfit

Working on Friday can be tricky if the workplace culture practices Casual Friday, the unofficial weekend for everyone to come in at a later timing and usually in their casual clothes. Since it is still a workplace, professionalism is a must when trying to balance casual and smart, especially when trying to coordinate with wardrobe choices. There are certain outfits that can achieve this, and once the combination is mastered, they can even function as outfits for after work plans. TGIF!

Introduce Colours/Patterns To Smarten An Attire

Instead of going all out to find for alternatives, consider introducing colours or patterns into the usual office attire. This can also be good time for one to express personal preferences and strike up conversation topics. If a colleague walks into the office wearing a polka dot shirt, it is a sure attention grabber as compared to the otherwise white and black suit commonly donned by office workers. Colours are also a great morale boost — just be sure to avoid overtly flashy choices because it is still work after all.

Switch Out Formal For Quirky

Instead of going for the usual necktie, consider other quirky choices, such as a bowtie. This will be a fun way to express hidden sides to fellow workmates and find out more about their lifestyles outside of work. Are they part of the indie trend or a fan of a music group? By going the extra mile to find interesting pieces of articles to replace the template outfit, it creates an opportunity to let the conversations revolve around the individual and make new connections through mutual interests.

Dress For Comfort, But Not Comfort Clothes

When trying to match comfort and style, the line between the two can be very fine. As Casual Friday implies, it is a day for casual dressing, but do not mistake this for comfortable dressing. Examples of the latter include sweatpants, inappropriate shorts and flip flops. While these may be tempting, it presents itself to be too comfortable and may give off the impression that the outfit belongs at home. Always be alert because work does not come to an end on a Friday, and the company image will still be at stake. Sometimes, new clients come in on a Friday and first impressions always matter — so be mindful of how comfortable the outfit presents itself to be.

Kick-off such habits at work!

Frankly, we all have bad habits and these negative ways that we portray to our colleagues may make them stay away from you. You sure have some colleagues that dodge away when they see you. Look back at what are the things that you have done that caused this to happen.

Be that pleasant colleague that people will want to get near to you.

Checking emails constantly

It is disruptive and annoying when you go back to your emails constantly and when an email notification pops out. Give yourself the time of about 45 minutes to focus on important tasks or the priorities on your To-Do List before checking back. Else, you will realise that most of the tasks cannot be completed or could be done halfway while you move on to the next task.

You may even think that you are productive while you respond to all the incoming emails as soon as you can. However, this does not come by being productive. It does not mean that you are get your priorities done.

Over-talkative

Not everyone is willing to listen to what you have to say about work or even your personal matters. If you go on and on talking and only want people to agree with you, they may move away from you. Create a two-way conversation and also pay close attention to what the other party has to say. Try this – listen more than you take.

Turn up late for meetings

Why are we always punishing our colleagues who are punctual or even putting in the extra effort to reach 5 to 10 minutes earlier for meetings? When we wait for the latecomers, this will end up in domino effect as our colleagues may have to delay their other meetings or work schedules which have been planned out in advance.

Negativity

It is inevitable that we whine, complain or even gossip about work at times. It is alright to pour out your sorrows once in a while. You will feel better when someone understands your situation but I’m sure you do come across colleagues who are always doing that, near to every day. Have you ever thought if this will make your colleagues feel irksome when you do it repeatedly because it does not solve any issues by just whining or complaining?

Discriminatory Job Advertisements

In Singapore, there is an organization to ensure that no companies use discriminatory wordings in their job advertisements. If you are in the Human Resource Industry long enough, you will commonly know them as TAFEP – or Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment.

Basically, TAFEP ensures companies uses fair practices during hiring or while at work. There have been a number of companies who have been given demerit points, fined, or asked to attend compulsory courses by TAFEP to ensure that discriminatory practices do not happen again.

But do you know that apart from the benefit of ensuring fair practices - there is another benefit?

Increased Applicants

Studies have shown that job advertisements which do not seem to steer towards a preference for a gender type are able to attract more applicants. With a wider pool of applicants, you can have more choices about who is going to be the good fit with the company.

Recruitment website ZipRecruiter found that job listing with gender-neutral wording gets 42% more responses than listing with gendered wordings. In this case, gendered wordings could also imply words that people associate with masculinity or feminism. 

Increased Employer Branding and Increased Employee Retention

Imagine if you are in a company, whom you are aware are hiring based on discriminatory practices – would you not think that they might promote based on discriminatory practices as well instead of meritocracy?

If they are going to promote based on discriminatory practices, current employees would be concerned. If gender, race and age are going to be a consideration factor for the time when you would get the promotion, then we would not suggest waiting too long.