Harmony at Work by Susan Spero

Author:Susan Spero
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Relationshift Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2022-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Build Trust and Patience

Trust is one of those words that gets tossed around frequently when describing relationships of any kind. People have written numerous books, delivered plenty of seminars, and posted many podcasts on the subject. Trust can be slow to build, difficult to maintain over time, and, sadly, can be destroyed in a minute. Sometimes it only takes one inappropriate comment, one betrayal of a confidence, or one unethical action to undo the trust that you have worked hard to create and support for years.

There are so many stories of what gets discovered when an employee resigns, is fired, takes vacation, goes out on medical leave, or dies suddenly. Sometimes coworkers have had a sense that something is amiss, and other times they are completely blindsided.

For example, when the executive director of a small nonprofit took a job in another city, the board members and remaining staff were appalled to find that the executive director had hidden in her desk months of notices about unpaid payroll taxes. The backlog of taxes due, plus the resulting penalties and interest payments, left the organization with such a huge debt that they were forced to close their doors. Since the executive director had resigned, there was no way to repair the damage and rebuild trust. The board may not have even wanted to make that effort, had she still been in town.

In another company, a manager was investigating the high rate of turnover among women in his department. He discovered that one of the men who worked there had been sexually harassing several women and had had affairs with some of them. The abused women had all chosen to resign, rather than report it and confront their accuser. After consulting with their legal and human resources departments, the manager had to make a difficult decision. Should they fire this man outright? Or might discipline and counseling realistically help him behave better and rebuild trust with his manager and peers?

Sometimes the breach of trust is less egregious. It might be that you and I frequently work together on projects. I might need you to provide information or do your part of the task before I can complete my responsibilities and meet our deadlines. Let’s say you repeatedly tell me you’ll bring me your contributions by X date, and you usually miss the deadlines. Or maybe you always arrive five to ten minutes late for a meeting, often seeming frazzled and unprepared. When that’s your pattern, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for me to trust that you’ll honor deadlines or show up on time and be prepared.

When this is the pattern, I may start telling you I need your materials by Wednesday when I really need them by Friday. Or I might tell you the meeting starts at 1:45, when the true start time is 2:00. You then think, “She doesn’t really need it by Wednesday—I have more time,” or “They never start meetings on time. I can show up later.” The net

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