I absolutely do not like the term “my manager”, I see that it has a bad connotation and I feel it is a kind of disparagement of the person and that the manager controls the person.
Whereas what I see is true is that the manager is the manager of the person's operations and not the person's themselves. Managers at the lower level manage resources and operations, and on the highest level they manage strategies, but not people. They cooperate and coordinate with people to perform their operations.
Meaning, for example, we say this is my work manager or my position manager, not my manager. Because it is logical that the manager manages the work that I do, and he is the one who determines whether my work is correct and acceptable or not, and controls it, but he doesn’t control or manage me. Because if he does, this means that he should be 100% responsible for my actions in work, because it's him who manages me and hence responsible for what I do. So, accordingly, it is not logical to blame me for a mistake or to fire me because it was him who led me to do this. I can also add that he does not control me and he cannot judge me as a person outside of work whether what I am doing is right or acceptable or not. Our saying that this person is the manager of a person means that we have given him an absolute dimension and control so that this manager manages this person even outside of work.
Perhaps many may see this point as marginal and unimportant, but for me I see it as important, especially for some personalities.
In this context, I remember a study in psychology conducted by a group of researchers on a number of students in order to test a hypothesis that was put forward in one of the studies in 1966, which studied the effective relationship between the love of freedom of the individual and his reaction when dealing with controlling bosses.
This study showed that the level of students is affected negatively unconsciously when they encounter the name of a person they consider a controlling person.
In a study also, the results showed that this type of people who are negatively affected by the people they try to control act either consciously or unconsciously, so that they reach a stage where they act unconsciously to defend their freedom when they just feel that the person in front of them intends to control them. To the extent that they may take any action to defend their freedom, and this may lead them to problems in the workplace.
Understanding something like this is important in the work environment and in the business, whether it is for the people affected or the managers. As the affected people can be trained on how to deal with this feeling and deal with it and with the controlling managers, as well as for the managers to understand the people who run their business and to know how to deal with them in a positive way that does not affect the quality and atmosphere of the work.
The current relationship that exists in some companies (only through my limited experience) gives me the feeling that the employee is a servant to satisfy the desires of the manager, or that he is a beggar who needs pity from the company to kindly hire him.
For me, I see that the true perspective of the relationship between the employee and the company is a partnership and a cooperation relationship, between an individual and a company in the first place, and then in the work environment it is a cooperation relationship between the individual and the direct manager who represents the company or the company's management.
Giving a partnership and a cooperation description has a positive significance and intonation for the relationship between the employee and the company and for the position and condition of the individual (the employee) in this relationship, and of course regardless of the position or position he occupies in the company. Accordingly, I can mention some of the benefits of such a perspective through the following points:
It removes the concept that the manager is the manager of the person
It removes the negative intonation and negative psychological feelings of being controlled
It gives the individual an independent entity and personality
It gives respect and value to all jobs and positions
- It removes the look of inferiority and, in return, the look of arrogance and elevates the value of all humans
It eliminates or mitigates the negative psychological impact when problems or dismissals occur
The question now is how can this relationship be made a cooperation? Well, let us first agree that simply changing our perspective and philosophy towards this relationship is the beginning of creating this relationship. Secondly, there may be practical measures that can be taken to embody this relationship in the form of names and structure of official relations adopted in companies. For example, I suggest the following:
That it be stipulated in the employment contracts that the relationship is a cooperation relationship between the individual and the company.
– That companies also search for individuals to work with them, and not only what is happening now that the individual is the one who search for companies to work with them
– That some terminology be changed in this relationship, such as the dismissal of an employee or the dismissal of an employee, to replace it with end of cooperation
In addition to this, I might add to this perspective that personally I see the relationship between an employee and the manager of his work pretty much like a relationship between a client (the manager) and a seller (the employee) where the employee tries to provide the services and products that satisfy the needs of the manager. Furthermore, and from a similar perspective as well, the manager is the representative of the customers of the company (the company’s clients). In this context, if we imagine a business relationship between only two persons, then one is the seller and the other is the client. In this way, it is the same thing for the relationship between the manager and the employee; Is the client superior and the client is inferior?. I don’t think so.
This is the general idea of this perspective, through which I try to emphasize the importance and the value of human as he/she is and their value as an individual and as an independent entity, and that his dignity and value should not be affected in any way, and that all human beings are equal and that there is no difference between us at all. It is just the value of what we do which can differ, but our value as humans is the same, which is a distinct difference.