Don’t screw the crew

Romance is seen as an inevitability of young flirty work staff who are acting on natural instincts. Authors find:

• positives (productivity and happiness)
• negatives (jealousy, fighting, distraction, distraction)
• homophobia
• When relationships end the junior and female partners are often the ones to have to find a new job. Women also face the “slut” double standard. (RiachWilson 2007)

Thoughts??

ex. Six questions??

1. What is workplace friendship?
2. What is novel about workplace friendships?
3. What is an example of each narrative of deterioration; how common was each?
4. What are dialectical tensions and which ones relate to blended relationships?
5. What tactics were used to implement deterioration?
6. What were the consequences?

Workplace friendships?

Workplace friendships

Friendship

A relationship of mutual affection; stronger than association. Workplace friendships

have a personalistic focus in which individuals come to know and treat each other as whole persons rather than simply workplace role occupants (SiasEtal 2004, p. 322)

Novelty?

Novelty

Permit people to communicate about work-related issues with a depth and efficiency unavailable in other friendships

Narratives of deterioration?

Narratives of deterioration

• problem personality (10)
• distracting life event (3)
• conflicting expectations (5)
• promotion (5)
• betrayal (2)

Dialectical tensions?

Bridge and Baxter (1992)

Dialectical tensions

• instrumentality and affection
• impartiality and favoritism
• openness and closedness
• autonomy and connection
• judgment and acceptance (SiasEtal 2004)

Tensions of blended relationships?

Subordinate/superior and promotion relationships exhibited the tensions of:

• impartiality and favoritism
• judgment and acceptance

Tactics?

Tactics

• avoidance of non-work related topics
• avoidance of outside socialization
• nonverbal distancing: paralinguistic cues such as tone of voice (e.g., snappy and condescending)
• cost-rendering: uncommon, making the relationship to costly to continue, e.g. cutting the crossword puzzle out of the newspaper
• exclusion tactic: uncommon because people must still work together

Nods to nothing

Language types

Why is this funny?

Consequences?

Consequences?

• emotional stress
• turnover
• hindered job performance
• taking lessons regarding relationships

What to do?