Thank you for your kind words and thoughtful encouragement.

JM Donato,

Thank you for your comment and welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy many of the discussions on this site.

You have hit the nail right on the head in relation to the question of what makes for an effective and mutually beneficial working relationship between an employee and their employer.

Mutual trust forms part of the foundation of any human relationship, as you say, including those at a workplace level.

You make a valid point in relation to the issue of standing up for one’s rights, and your comment has made me realize that in my last paragraph, I may have come across as advocating a somewhat militant or hostile approach toward this end.

This was not my intention, and in the vast majority of circumstances, I do not feel that a hostile approach is a constructive way to resolve employee grievances. Employees seeking to stand up for their rights should do so in a manner which is firm but constructive, and should seek to work toward mutually workable solutions with their employer.

Litigation should be used only as a last resort, and I apologize if I came across as advocating a hostile approach toward dispute resolution.

The main point which I was driving up was that staff should be free to stand up for their rights (in a constructive way) without fear or intimidation.

I agree with your point that people should stand up for their rights. However, standing for ones rights sometimes could end up in litigation that is usually quite expensive, and which most of the time never brings long lasting results.

“For businesses to succeed, the employee needed to have a sense of belonging to the organisation. This would happen when the employee came to trust the employer. And trust would exist only where the employer was seen to act ethically, where his actions sprang from “warm-heartedness”. Ethical action was also required because success in business alone would not bring about peace of mind or satisfaction. Only actions that were rooted in “warm heartedness” would prove constructive.”

The Dalai Lama

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