Separation of Home and Work

There is always talk of leaving your personal life at the door when you come to work. That might be true in a perfect world. But we don't live in a bubble. No one can do that. I am not saying that you should allow your personal life to affect you at work or be an excuse for poor performance. However, I believe that a good manager should still acknowledge anything that might be affect that person and if the circumstance warrants should allow them the opportunity to talk about it.

I remember a long time ago there was a situation that stayed with me... Something was going on (the details aren't really important and I don't even remember) and Carrie (my performance coach at the time) pulled me aside and asked me what was going on. She knew it was affecting me. I never forgot that. She took the time to address it and empathized with me.

Christie does that. I can't speak for other agents, although I have seen it. But even with me she acknowledged the frustration of my student loan and my heating woes. That doesn't mean that she would allow me to use it as an excuse but at least she acknowledged that I might have something else on my mind. Likewise, I know that Christie isn't going to be focused on work 100% of the time. Right now she is sick so I know that it affects her. Life happens...

Contrast this with my former team leader. 2005 was a horrible year for me. The biggest impact was being raped by a coworker. Now rape in and of itself was bad enough. How do you possibly separate work and home in that case? Not only did I live in the same building I worked in but Mike also worked there. I was told not to say anything. Chris never even acknowledged that it might be affecting me. I would see him at work but it was always this unspoken ghost haunting me. Now, me being me, I never would've talked about it. But I think it should have at least been acknowledged. Or even a referral to the EAP counsellor. She swept it under the rug like she did everything else that might be affecting my performance at work.

So if you ever find yourself in a managerial position acknowledge the employees personal life and discuss anything that might be important to them. It builds a more positive work relationship. It doesn't mean making excuses for the behaviour or poor performance but you do build a relationship with your employees that way.