5 Secrets How to Avoid Irritating Your Employees

Avoiding irritating your employees is essential if you want to keep your best staff and promote a happy workplace environment. Of course, we have all said things that we’ve later regretted or looking back, wishing we had done things differently. However, it’s important to avoid getting into habits that irritate and frustrate your employees.

Managing a few people in a small business or looking after teams of employees in a large multi-national requires becoming the right kind of leader. If you start hiring the wrong employees for the job, giving credit when it’s not earned, or implementing ineffective policies, you will find management a constant challenge.

Here are the top 5 secrets that every manager should know to avoid irritating their employees.

1. Don’t Make Everyone a Manager

There is an old adage that “too many cooks spoil the broth” and the same is true in management. Having too many managers is a sure way to irritate your employees. Of course, assigning management roles is a good way to boost productivity and encourage development. However, if too many employees have managing roles there will be problems when certain projects overlap.

For example, if a department is split into multiple managing roles, you may find that employees become frustrated because it’s difficult to know who’s in charge. The end result is that the project grinds to a halt and time and effort is wasted.

2. Interact with Employees Frequently

Another trait of a good manager to avoid getting on your employees’ nerves is to interact with them without the need to resolve problems. Seagull management is one of the most irritating management types that employees face. The manager swoops in giving out orders without really knowing the situation and then disappears until the next problem.

So, spend time with your employees and show an interest in how projects are progressing. This has the advantage of keeping your employees happy and preventing problems from becoming larger. However, you should also take heed of the next secret to avoid being a source of irritation – micromanaging.

3. Don’t Micromanage

Allowing employees enough freedom to make decisions and come up with ideas on a project is a great way to prevent irritating them. If your staff are trained well and are clear about company policies, there should be no need to be involved in every blog post, email that is sent, or pre-approving every tweet.

Learning how to delegate appropriate tasks to the right persons will help keep your company running well. Delegating responsibility to employees also gives them a sense of accomplishment and boosts workplace productivity.

4. Demanding Too Much

Avoid irritating your employees by not demanding too much from them. This can be especially challenging if you have a few very productive employees who get jobs done quickly. So, avoid the tendency to overwork your best employees. In the end, they could feel that they are getting punished for being a good worker.

It’s also important to remember that overworking employees is not just irritating, but could hinder your company’s productivity. Many studies have shown that businesses that constantly demand their employees to put in overtime have low productivity and a higher employee turnover.

5. Move with the Times

One important way to avoid exasperating your employees is to move with the times and don’t get stuck in your ways. Changes in technology, new business practices, and business expansion mean that there are always opportunities to move with the times. So, if an employee has an innovative idea or comes up with suggestions, don’t just shrug them off with the comment “that’s not company policy.”

For example, some businesses were slow to use social media marketing as part of their strategy. Some managers assumed that it is just something for teenagers or to watch clips of funny cats. However, these businesses soon lost out to their competitors who were quick to get a foothold on social media.