The other day I was thinking about company policies implemented in the work place and how they effect both the customers and employees. It was a specific policy change that really brought this to my mind. So I thought why not explore both sides of it and see what is good and what is bad about policy.
One major thing I have noticed about rules in the work place is that the more policies you have will effect the employees performance. Sometimes the effect can be good and others will dumb down their performance. I think there is some very clear reasons why it has one effect over the other.
When you look at the policy and the reasoning behind it and what it will do for the company and employees you can get an general idea how it will change things for the better or for worse. For example there is a policy that is put into place because it is thought that customers and not paying for services rendered. From what the few numbers looked at by the people at the top see it appears as if the customers are not paying for the services rendered and employees think the customer is being honest and paying. However maybe it is not just a cut and dry issue. When you break it down there is more to what the employee is doing that effects some small things that are not thought about. If he messes one small area up he gets in trouble but then when he is trying to cover himself from that he puts himself in a position that lowers is output of good work preformed.
I find that when I company puts a new policy into place usually lowers the employees performance by some because they will get in trouble if they break it and who wants to be in trouble. If you are always trying to cover you back and not get in trouble you are going to be more focused on that then the actual you are doing.
I am not saying that we should not have company policies. I think we approach them from the wrong way. Because of the American mindset we look down upon those who fail at things or make mistakes which causes people to worry about not doing them or failing and not have as much personal interest in what they are doing. Maybe we should have the policies but allow failure and be there to help the person when they fail and lift them back to their feet and maybe show them ways to do it better and see if it will help them. We are too focused on money that we seem to not care about people nearly as much as we should.
