When one employee breaks your company’s rules, it’s easy to jump to conclusions. You might assume that others are just looking for their opportunity to take advantage. But assuming the worst about your employees is a toxic mistake.
It’s much healthier for your company culture to assume good intent rather than the opposite. When you assume bad intent from your employees, you create a culture of fear and mistrust.
For example, at Softway, a B2E solutions company, our office used to have biometric scanners. We knew exactly when employees arrived at and left work. But this system, based on mistrust and assuming ill intent, was bad for morale. We were treating our employees like criminals, and our toxic culture reflected it.
Later, when we transformed our culture to one of love and support, we dismantled the scanners. We, instead made it company policy to assume that our team members operate with good intent.
For the sake of your company culture, I encourage you to do the same.
If a policy is being abused, address the issue with the offenders rather than punish everyone. Above all, treat employees with trust and respect. Your employees will feel it, and in turn, they’ll want to help the company succeed.
