In my first blog I mentioned that I had recently been promoted to the Dining Room Manager of the restaurant that I work for. We have hired a few new employees that have only known me as their manager, which is actually rather nice. One of the girls was having an issue at home the last few days and wasn't her bubbly self at work. I knew something was wrong but when I asked her if she was ok, she told me things were fine. I am not one to pry into people's lives and if you tell me that you are ok then that is where I am going to leave it. However, I have with my staff told them many times that if they ever need to talk to someone, even just have someone listen to them and not say anything, not to hesitate to pull me aside. I am a great listener and I know that sometimes it is just a relief to be able to speak what is on your mind.
The other day this employee, lets call her Carol, begins to tell me that she needs to take Sunday's off from now on. I asked her if things were ok and you could see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. She was trying not to cry, but I could tell that she needed to say somethings and we needed to talk about her not working Sunday's anyways. So I told the other employees that we would be right back and I brought her upstairs into the office. She informed me that her family (husband and children) are having a hard time dealing with her going back to work because she was a stay at home mother for so long. She was also having some issues with her husbands ex-wife and dealing with the children's after school activities schedules.
After letting her get out everything that she was thinking and that was on her mind, her night turned around and she seemed to be in a better mood. After our initial talk and again during the night and one more time before she left for the evening, she apologized to myself and the owner for being crabby and bringing her personal life and problems into the restaurant and not being able to leave it at the door. I kept telling her that it wasn't a problem and we all have our days. That being said: I don't have a problem with bringing personal problems into work especially when it is your work or schedule that is conflicting with your home life or visversa. We do all have our bad days and need our quite days when life isn't where we want it to be etc. However, I do agree to leave problems at the door when they are going to make you mad and you are going to become irritable, crabby, start arguments or make the work environment uncomfortable for other employees.
Seeing that everyone will be entering into the "Business World" in a short time, I was hoping this would be a great opportunity to get some insight on others thoughts behind bringing your personal life or problems into the business world or atmosphere. What do you think?
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