I am a project manager and have one other PM counterpart. Together we have 16 technical folks reporting to us. There is a growing issue with many of our folks going on frequent smoke breaks together (even though some don’t smoke), walks via an outside path to the cafeteria for coffee (even though we have a pantry w/coffee in our section). My issue is that it becomes very visible to folks outside our group when 2-3-4-5-6 of the team are ‘breaking’ together – perception is everything in a large organization such as the one we are in. I’d appreciate any advice on how to discourage such behavior without squashing the ‘team’ mentality or pointing the finger at one or two individuals who seem to instigate such outings.
The Team Doc Says…
Is it really socializing? These folks could very well be talking about work projects. And at the very least, yes they are building the rapport and trust within their team. It would be a big mistake for you to turn this into a negative.
Believe it or not, it really is an OK thing to push back and it sounds like that’s what someone needs to do. But not from an emotional perspective.
Find out how those informal get togethers help their team work better together to accomplish business objectives. If your leadership is fair, there should be a way to compromise.
Just make sure the emotion gets taken out of it or you will have more problems than you probably want to handle — from the front line of the organization to the top.
Best regards,
Denise O’Berry
aka ‘Team Doc’
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I don’t think this should be an issue. Are you supposed to tell them that they can only take a smoke break alone? They can’t have friends? They’re grown up, they don’t need to be babysat.
Tina — I agree with you. I think telling these team members to “go it alone” when they go outside would be a big mistake. There’s a lot of benefit to people gathering outside the work environment.