Avoid These 5 Killer Workplace Conversations

Avoid These 5 Killer Workplace Conversations Avoiding The 5 Worst Workplace Conversations Business owners and managers have enough on their plates without having to mediate employee disagreements. Simple differences in personality and approach to getting work done can cause friction between co-workers, but many workplace disagreements actually come from a far more controllable problem. According to  Benoy  Tamang, CEO of  eFileCabinet,  provider of document management tools,  â€œa  majority of the disagreements that arise in the workplace stem from the  communication barriers imposed by outdated or inefficient technology.” Tamang  has identified the five “killer”  conversations that can be  avoided by the use of efficient  document management  technology. With these systems employers  and  managers  can avoid  playing  the  intermediary  and focus on growing and maintaining a successful business. The  â€œThat’s Not My Responsibility”  Conversation Most workers  don’t  like picking up someone else’s slack around the office or doing someone else’s job for them entirely.  In a paper-dependent office,  â€œThat’s not my responsibility,” can often surface for several reasons: Employees have a harder time keeping track of  project  information and  often feel the need to handle  all the tasks associated with  a project  themselves. Lack of a clearly defined workflow and task delegation process. Whose responsibility is it  really?   Paper-dependent organizations frequently lose    and therefore need to re-create    information  requiring  someone to recreate  the lost information no matter how hard they play the  â€œthat’s not my responsibility”  card. The  â€œYour Desk is Distractingly Messy”  Conversation   If you have a messy desk, Forbes.com reports that  57% of your coworkers are already judging you.  And even  if your desk isn’t messy, you’ve likely had a coworker or two with a distractingly cluttered desk. Nine times out of ten, the desk’s clutter is comprised of paper  in the form of sticky notes, errant printed documents, or  the occasional (or not so occasional)  grease-laden paper towels from the office kitchen. What’s more, the smaller your  co-worker’s desk, the more likely  someone  sitting near them  has begged  a desk cleanup or some other type of intervention.  Moving away from a paper-dependent operation and implementing an  effective protocol  to encourage its use,  will mean  cleaner working  spaces    and  happier coworkers  in  clutter-free  surroundings. The  â€œI don’t Know Where That Is”  Conversation At face value this conversation  is sometimes subtly related to the “Not my responsibility” conversation, and both can have a  comparatively negative impact on an organization’s bottom line. The data natural to a document management system â€" file naming, file retrieval, and storage templating â€" can make it easier to find and use even archived documents. The  â€œWhere’s That Email?”  Conversation The explosion of email and messaging, many of which come with attached files, makes it difficult to categorize, identify, and retrieve incoming information. Integrating document technology with  Microsoft Outlook  can create  a  spam-free repository free so employees can more easily use and manage a flood of email communication. The  â€œI don’t Want You to Work from Home”  Conversation Maximizing productivity can,  at times, mean  having  employees  who  work  remotely or  from home.  The biggest challenge can be the  security of workplace information and data  accessed by remote  employees. Moving to a  cloud-based, online document management software  with  secure access to files from any  Internet connection is more and more becoming a  viable  business  practice. Workspace  organization is as important as effective communication in keeping morale upbeat.  Dependence on paper-based systems â€" and all their attendant management and retrieval challenges  â€"  can  set your employees up for avoidable disagreements that distract the organization from more productive and profitable tasks. In-house and cloud-based document management systems put information at your employees’ fingertips and can  deliver simplified  assignment, tracking,  retrieval,  and management  capabilities across your company. Join Dana Manciagli’s Job Search Master Class ® right now and immediately access the most comprehensive job search system currently available!