What To Do About Personal Drama In An Agency – Value Your Time
What do you do when someone in your insurance agency is bringing their personal drama into work? This can be a delicate issue to deal with, but if left unaddressed, it can lead to tons of distractions for your entire team, and can impact your office culture. All this week we’ve been diving into this topic, because when this happens, personal drama suddenly starts to impact work productivity.
“You as a coworker, as a manager, or as a leader, need to make sure you value your own time, because someone else’s drama they’re bringing to you… may cause you to fall behind in your tasks.”
Today we’re talking about what to do if you’re on the receiving end of someone else’s personal drama in your agency.
If an employee or even multiple employees are coming to you with their personal issues, it can definitely be tough on you. You want to be a listening ear, and you may even want to be a good friend or a good coworker. But you need to keep in mind that you also need to set your boundaries.
Are you a therapist? Is this a living room?
No, definitely not. This is an insurance office, which is a place of business.
And you need to be able to focus on your work, without trying to play therapist, and without others in your office getting distracted by someone else’s drama.
Work Environment Behavior
Your workplace is just that, a workplace. So when someone is bringing their personal drama to work, we still need to maintain those boundaries, and encourage our team members to handle their personal issues at another time.
Cocktail hour is a great time to dish on the personal drama, as is lunch or coffee. Your team member who is struggling with their drama can set aside that personal time to really let out what’s going on, with the appropriate people.
But either way, as a manager, leader, or even just coworker, you need to make sure that you’re valuing your own time, because someone else’s drama can lead you to fall behind on your own tasks.
Your Own Productivity
When someone brings their drama into work, they’re not only impacting their own workday and productivity. They’re impacting the productivity of the people around them who are listening in on what’s going on, and if you’re on the receiving end of the drama, they’re definitely impacting your schedule.
Yes, other people’s drama can lead you to fall behind on your own tasks. If you have a client matter to attend to, or an urgent matter pops up, you need to be focused on getting it done properly, and not be distracted by someone else’s personal drama.
While this may be difficult, we need to think about how to handle this situation properly, because at the end of the day, you’re not a therapist.
Drawing the Line
If you are outside friends with a coworker going through drama, you can help them deal with their issue outside of work, but it certainly shouldn’t be handled in the workplace.
Because at the end of the day, we need to think about how much this is costing your team when this happens in the workplace.
If this employee is on the phone at work with their divorce attorney or with their family member, everyone is going to hear it, and is going to be involved by proxy. This can lead to big distractions across the board, and can stop people from being focused on their own work.
And if we’re drawing the line about being involved in other people’s dramas, we’re making sure we don’t give the drama more attention.
Don’t Give the Drama Oxygen
When someone brings their drama to work and everyone gets involved, it gets more attention, and can snowball. When the drama “gets more oxygen,” it can turn into more of a forest fire within the office.
That’s why drawing the line on personal drama is so important. The more people get involved, the bigger this thing is going to get.
Instead of letting the drama fester and grow, we should be nipping it in the bud, and ensuring that there’s boundaries. We can do that while still being a kind human being, a good boss, and a supportive friend.
We can do that by giving that person the opportunity to discuss their issue at another time, and encourage them to use work as a distraction from their personal drama.
Work as a Distraction
As we mentioned yesterday, a great way to redirect an employee going through drama is to encourage them to leave their drama at the door, and use work as a distraction.
This isn’t only great for productivity and drawing boundaries on the drama, but also for giving your people space to have a mental break from the stress and the drama.
These subjects can be very sensitive, and it’s understandable if you want to support someone going through a crisis or drama. But don’t forget, this person may be better off talking to a professional, such as a therapist or spiritual advisor. The workplace should be somewhere where everyone is happy and comfortable, and that means limiting the amount of personal drama people bring with them into the workplace.
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