• Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Penny Polly

  • Home
  • Smart Money
  • Make Money
  • Lifestyle
  • Blogging
  • How to Start a Blog
  • About Us

December 27, 2018 by Cara Berkeley

Learn How to Repair a Work Relationship and Build Positive Connections

Filed Under: Lifestyle

Pin22
Share2
Tweet
Reddit
24 Shares

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.

You spend half your life at work. The relationships you have there can make or break your day. And, your emotions. Unhealthy work relationships can make for an unhealthy life in general!

Repairing work relationships that have gone south is not only crucial for your career, but your home-life as well. Stress at work can quickly bleed into your home life, and your happiness.

A common cause of depression and mental health issues is actually a toxic work environment and stress at work! Even the World Health Organization emphasizes the important of work on your mental health.

Good relationships can make work easier and more fun, while bad work relationships can make you reach for the tissue box or the antacids.

And as an added career bonus, they can affect your future. If someone works well with you, they will speak well of you when you are ready for your next level job.

But a bad relationship at work can hold you back in your career. You might get overlooked for a promotion, or if things get bad enough you could even be fired due to a poor work relationship. So, repairing a work relationship and building good work relationships is worth your time!

If you have rocky interactions with past or present colleagues, here are four simple strategies you can take to repair your work relationships.

5 Ways to Repair Work Relationships

Communicate with Your Voice Instead of Text

Build positive work relationships by communicating over phone instead of email
Don’t rely on just digital communications with coworkers

The cause of many misunderstandings is misinterpretation. It is so easy to misinterpret the written word of emails or text messages at work or in your personal life.

What is meant to sound like a straightforward response can come across as abrupt or cold. Some people may look for pleasantries first in an email.

Conversely, people who prefer short communications may skim over long messages and miss the original point of an email message. 

One strategy for clear communication and healthy work relationships is to speak more by phone or in person. Don’t just rely on email.

If you need more than three sentences to explain something or respond to someone, consider having a conversation first. Not only will it avoid misinterpretation, but it will develop your work relationships in a more personal way.

Creating and maintaining personal connections with coworkers will help you build positive work relationships that last.

Focus on What’s Most Important to Others First

It is human nature to see things from your own perspective. One proven best practice in communication is to understand what is most important to your colleagues first.

The late Stephen R. Covey, author of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, advised “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

People often open up when they feel that their perspectives are being heard and taken into account. And, people often get angry if they feel they are being ignored.

You can avoid ever having to repair work relationships by consistently working on keeping them good in the first place. Building positive relationships at work is easy and can help your career.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

Stephen R. Covey

Don’t Follow the Golden Rule

While the Golden Rule of treating others as you wish to be treated is an often-quoted piece of life advice, it only works if your co-workers and colleagues like to be treated in the same way as you do.

People have different preferences. You may have one co-worker that appreciates it if you sort her mail, while another sees it as intrusive.

To avoid misunderstandings, talk with colleagues and learn their preferences for communication and information sharing.

Understand your coworkers’ personalities and interact with them in the best possible way for them. Understanding your coworkers and their individual personalities will go a long way to helping your build positive work relationships or repair broken ones.

In addition, understanding how someone works can help you know how to convince them to agree with you when it is important at work.

Address the Elephant in the Room

Talk things out to build better work relationships
Repairing work relationships may require outside help

If you are having a problem with a colleague, timing is everything in working it out.

If something makes you mad and you react too quickly, you or your colleague may say something you regret. If you are angry, don’t write that email. Wait until you’ve cooled down and have some perspective.

On the other hand, if you let a situation fester it can interfere with your work or cause resentment.

If you need help addressing a situation, get advice from a third party. Many employers have confidential employee assistance programs that can provide advice and strategy in these situations.

To keep your work relationships good, stay calm, respect others and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Resolve for Yourself What Can’t be Fixed

Regardless of what steps you take to mend a work relationship, you can’t do it alone. If the other person you want to improve communication with is not open to addressing the issues, you may not be able to improve the situation despite your best efforts.

In this case identify what you can live with and what you cannot.

If your troubled relationship at work is with a current or former manager and you need to move on, find out how your employer handles reference checks.

And start looking for another job! There is no reason to stay in a miserable situation if there seems to be no improvement or way to change.

Some employers have policies that prohibit employees from serving as references, while others do not. As you apply for new positions, get a sense of what a reference may say before you share this information with a potential new employer.

Choose employees you have positive work relationships with to provide as work references.

Keep Moving Forward and building healthy work relationships

Over the course of your career, you will encounter co-workers that are easy to work with and others that are more challenging.

These strategies can help you navigate challenging situations, build good working relationships and improve existing ones. You can learn from each experience too. Learn more about yourself as well as how to work best with others.

As Tom Brokaw once said in a commencement speech:

“Real life is junior high. The world…is filled with junior high adolescent pettiness, pubescent rivalries, the insecurities of 13-year-olds…Your feelings will be hurt for some trivial slight…You can change that. In your pursuit of your passions, always be young. In your relationship with others, always be grown-up. Set a standard, and stay faithful to it.”

Regardless of whether you are looking for a new job or want to keep your current one, it is important to build and maintain good working relationships with coworkers.

Just as communication is an essential ingredient for success in any personal relationship, positive interactions at work decrease stress and increase productivity and morale.

Next Posts:

The Crappy and the Magical: Learning to Embrace Life

10 Time-Saving Products You Didn’t Know You Needed

7 Smart Ways to Start Your Day
10 Healthy Snacks

5 At-Home Facials that are All Natural

10 Time-Saving Products You Need

Learn How to Repair a Work Relationship and Build Positive Connections
Pin22
Share2
Tweet
Reddit
24 Shares

Primary Sidebar

Archives

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • December 2018

Categories

  • Blogging
  • Lifestyle
  • Make Money
  • Smart Money
Email service
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure

Copyright © 2022 · Captivating Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Scroll Up