I really dislike the term “It’s business not personal”. It’s used so frequently when someone gets screwed over at work.
If you really think about it, business is personal, of course it is, it impacts our lives every day.
Back when I was an accountant full time, I had to withhold information from my staff. I had worked with the wider department of 300, to establish ways of eliminating inefficient processes. All the staff believed that life was going to be made easier and they trusted me when I told them this was the case – it wasn’t. Little did I know a “business” decision had been made at the same time and I had many months of knowing that many of them were going to be made redundant; I couldn’t say anything. This went against my core and I struggled with feelings of dishonesty.
Clearly, I’m not naïve enough to think that businesses will never have to take difficult decisions on whether they can keep staff. Surely though, this culture of “save money, no other way but redundancies” is out-dated and a false economy in the long term? Isn’t there a better way?
It will always come back to leadership culture and behaviour. Treating people like the unique individuals they are instead of “just business”. Maybe the better way takes a bit longer but you end up with happier staff and a much better reputation as an employer.
