Playing it Straight

One game that people play in the workplace is called “I Have a Secret,” in which they know something is going on, they let other people know that they know, but they never say what “it” is. It is a power game played by weak-minded people who cannot get ahead on the strength of their abilities, so they try to make themselves seem more important by suggesting they are “on the inside.” It is a stupid thing to do when employees do it, and it is ridiculous and totally unprofessional when bosses do it. So don’t.

You need to be straight up and honest with your employees. Transparency is the name of the game in effective employer-employee relations. After all, you expect honesty from your employees, so you need to give it to them, too.

You want your employees concentrating on their work, not on worrying about what they don’t know. As soon as they learn you are keeping a secret from them, they will wonder what else you have not told them, and then they will not be focusing so much on work anymore. Do not give your employees a reason to mistrust you, it just gets in the way of them doing what they should be doing.

Many companies are emphasizing the group approach to work. One thing you do not want is some members of the group knowing everything that is going on while others are in the dark. People end up spending more time discussing all these secrets than they do working, and that does not help anyone. It can also create discontent in your teams as those that are not up on what is going on start to resent or distrust those who seem to be in the know. Do not create unnecessary problems just by hiding things.

Very often we do not like to talk to employees about problems they are having with their work. In order to avoid conflict we take the easy way out, sit back, and hope they change their performance. But keeping a secret like this — or worse, talking about your views with others but not with the employee — does a lot of harm. If people do not know they are doing something wrong, they will just keep doing it that way. Bite the bullet, get over the anxiety, and realize that by providing honest, constructive feedback you are liable to get better work out of your employees. Open, constructive feedback leads to better work.

Sometimes problems arise that you think might make you or the company look bad. In that case, you have a couple choices. One is to hide the problem, try to fix it by yourself and hope things get better. Another option is to tell your employees about it and use their fresh outlook to maybe help solve the problem. You have got talented people working for you (hopefully); use them to deal with internal issues as well as with the product you are producing.

It is tempting to hide stuff from your employees. You might think you are avoiding hassles by keeping things from them, but in the long run, you are likely to be hurting yourself. Sometimes there may be company information that you need to keep quiet, but very often it will not hurt to be transparent about what is going on. Before you decide to keep something secret, ask yourself “Am I doing this because it would be bad for the company to let them know, or am I doing this because it might make me embarrassed or anxious?” If it is the latter, then suck it up and tell them.