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Issue Number 34 - September 2000

Relationships in the Workplace

These days people spend a large part of their lives in the paid workforce - around a third of a day, often more, for those working in a full-time capacity. Consequently, for many, the workplace rivals the home as a place where personal relationships are significant. Sadly, the workplace, like the home, can be a place where power is exercised inappropriately and relationships break down as a result.

Some are exploited in the workplace and, with the decline of union power and the protection this can afford to workers, the value of labour is often extracted to the limit without just remuneration.

For others the workplace can become a place where bullying behaviour is used as a weapon to intimidate and control others. This can be exercised by either co-workers, managers or employers. It is estimated that bullying behaviour in the workplace is having a detrimental effect upon productivity in many countries, including Australia. Increasing numbers of workers are taking stress leave as a direct result of intimidation and bullying in the workplace.

Given dysfunctional power relationships that can exist in the workplace, what type of workplaces should we as a society aspire to?

In the end, relationships in the workplace should be based on mutuality - where rights and responsibilities are exercised with respect and integrity by both the employer/management and employees.

When taking this as the basis for workplace relationships, employees have a responsibility to do the work they are paid to do - to do a just day's work for just pay. Integrity in this regard is essential to a mutual relationship with an employer. There are a number of bad practices that have crept into the workforce culture which seriously mitigate against this. For example, the habit of taking sick days when there is no sickness and pilfering workplace resources for personal use. Such behaviour undermines the basis of a mutually respectful employee-employer relationship.

In this deregulated labour market environment it is becoming too easy for employers to push wages downward, below the level of a living wage. A consequence of this is that as a society we are witnessing the growing phenomenon of the "working poor". Employers must pay a just wage to employees and provide or cover for such entitlements as sick leave and holiday pay. They must ensure that the workplace is a safe place, both in a physical and psychological sense. Bullying and intimidation should not be tolerated, nor sexual harassment. Workplaces should be safe places where workers feel that justice is integral to the workplace culture.

Church-based organisations have a special duty to create workplaces that encompass right relationships between employers and employees. For well over a century now the Church has articulated a tradition of social teaching in which the dignity of work is based on a recognition of the dignity of the worker. In the encyclical Laborum Excercens (On Human Work), the current Pope called for workplace justice to be seen as a collaborative responsibility of society, the employer and the employee.

This is a challenge for us all who work in the Church sector. It is a challenge that cannot be avoided.

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		INFORM-A^CTION Issue Number 34 - September 2000 Relationships in the Workplace These days people spend a large part of their lives in the paid workforce - around a third of a day, often more, for those working in a full-time capacity. Consequently, for many, the workplace rivals the home as a place where personal relationships are significant. Sadly, the workplace, like the home, can be a place where power is exercised inappropriately and relationships break down as a result. Some are exploited in the workplace and, with the decline of union power and the protection this can afford to workers, the value of labour is often extracted to the limit without just remuneration. For others the workplace can become a place where bullying behaviour is used as a weapon to intimidate and control others. This can be exercised by either co-workers, managers or employers. It is estimated that bullying behaviour in the workplace is having a detrimental effect upon productivity in many countries, including Australia. Increasing numbers of workers are taking stress leave as a direct result of intimidation and bullying in the workplace. Given dysfunctional power relationships that can exist in the workplace, what type of workplaces should we as a society aspire to? In the end, relationships in the workplace should be based on mutuality - where rights and responsibilities are exercised with respect and integrity by both the employer/management and employees. When taking this as the basis for workplace relationships, employees have a responsibility to do the work they are paid to do - to do a just day's work for just pay. Integrity in this regard is essential to a mutual relationship with an employer. There are a number of bad practices that have crept into the workforce culture which seriously mitigate against this. For example, the habit of taking sick days when there is no sickness and pilfering workplace resources for personal use. Such behaviour undermines the basis of a mutually respectful employee-employer relationship. In this deregulated labour market environment it is becoming too easy for employers to push wages downward, below the level of a living wage. A consequence of this is that as a society we are witnessing the growing phenomenon of the "working poor". Employers must pay a just wage to employees and provide or cover for such entitlements as sick leave and holiday pay. They must ensure that the workplace is a safe place, both in a physical and psychological sense. Bullying and intimidation should not be tolerated, nor sexual harassment. Workplaces should be safe places where workers feel that justice is integral to the workplace culture. Church-based organisations have a special duty to create workplaces that encompass right relationships between employers and employees. For well over a century now the Church has articulated a tradition of social teaching in which the dignity of work is based on a recognition of the dignity of the worker. In the encyclical Laborum Excercens (On Human Work), the current Pope called for workplace justice to be seen as a collaborative responsibility of society, the employer and the employee. This is a challenge for us all who work in the Church sector. It is a challenge that cannot be avoided. Next Newsletter Article Newsletter Index