Should managers sit in the bait room at lunch?

[williamblackshaw 43]

Just wondering what peoples views are, as business managers / owners, do you join your team at lunch time or try to not be one of the lads/lasses so to speak, do you become friends on facebook with staff? or does this open a can of worms?

 

I like to join the team for lunch occasionally, let them know your human like them, it helps understand more about them as individuals, or does this allow staff to think they can take advantage? How do you know you've got the balance?

[Gavin@Rousdon 137]

I would say locking yourself in a office away from everyone will only cause a big divide. If your only employing a few members of staff its easier to allow abit of give and take whereas with larger numbers you have to stick by the rules more.

 

Most important is to be visable, my wife manages in the care industry, most managers will find a office tucked away from the 'floor' but she makes sure she has one right in the middle. That way staff can see her, ask questions and she has a grip of whats going on and get to know the people who work for her, the troublemakers can't hide and the good staff get noticed.  It has being a very sucsessfully policy for her and gains the respect of her staff.

 

If your staff respect you and you feel in control of the business the balance will be right, the way you achieve this will vary for each member of staff.

[jimreidvehicle 255]

Great question!

 

Finding the balance is the main thing, I encourage our managers to talk with our members of staff however there is always a very fine line when it comes to the social side! Personally in the past I had always distanced myself when it comes to social activities when I was a manager in a franchise dealership, however now we have established our own family business we are much more involved with staff and their families, however there is always a very fine line that you have to watch not to cross!

 

Respect is gained NOT a god given right and as long as you are using discretion and humility there is no reason why on some occasions managers can sit in the 'bait' room for lunch, it does help prevent barriers!

[umesh 336]

As said a very fine line , in my old role there were many times I'd grab some lunch with the team ..but there were times when they didn't want the manager as "I wasn't one of the lads' think it all about respect as Jim pointed out.

As for socialising in the evenings that was a very rare thing maybe one a year ! the lads wanted to do their thing I was the big bad manager ( well to be honest I was too good to them ... so they ALL keep telling me after I'd left !! )

[Ian 15]

I dunno - there's only me and my gaffer here! We are great friend anyway and have huge respect.

[autoecosse 3]

I think it's important for the manager to get mixing with the staff. On a busy day we have 3 sales staff, me - the marketing manager and our director. We all take it turns to go pick up the lunch, though normally I go because I get grumpy if I don't get my lunch at 12 haha. We don't really have a dining area where we can all eat together but we do get a bit of banter over lunch and throughout the day.

[Lionheart 1]

Great discussion and a similar point of view seems to be carried through, which is depends on the environment. Its not a one size fits all.

 

When we started there were 3 of us, there was no real division. As the company has grown a degree of structure was introduced at certain levels of growth. I've slowly attended less and less of the social events, but encouraging team effort. I refuse to sit in one of the offices, but camp out on the floor to keep an ear on all goings on. I have the meeting rooms when private discussions or calls need to be made. At our current stage this works well.

Unfortunately I end up more often than not eating my lunch at my desk which is a bad habit. Again I can keep an eye on things ensure we are staffed sufficiently to handle the calls.

No doubt more changes will happen again if we meet the planned growth for 2014. Would be great to look at this post in 12 months time to see what did take place and if any changes were made.

[Lusky 3]

We all mug in together, my desk is in an open office, everyone talks to everyone all the time, we dont have a divide between any members of staff, we are all the same, but just do different jobs. It seems to work, and everyone seems to enjoy the open management style. Offices are where people hide, so dont have them!!!!  We have our lunch on the run, where ever and when ever we get a couple of minutes.