There are plenty of things to keep in mind when you run a business. However, at the forefront should be how you hire your employees and then how you treat those employees after you've hired them. Many business owners fail to take into consideration the fact that if it weren't for their employees, they wouldn't have much of a business to begin with. While you want to keep your employees happy, you also want to make sure that you're not crossing that thin, invisible line where soon before you know it, you've given them too much and they are taking advantage of it.



Many business owners tend to have Type A personalities where they want everything done yesterday and what an employee does gets scrutinized severely. In once situation, I know of someone who was hired to do a particular job and had two supervisors pulling him in different directions. The one supervisor wanted everything done with meticulous detail but then handed him a huge list of tasks to complete for the day. The list of things couldn't get completed unless he chose to rush through them. Upon telling his supervisor these concerns, the supervisor didn't care what he had to say. No doubt, this person's desire to work for the one supervisor deteriorated quickly soon after.

When you run a business, there is a saying that the happier your employers are, the better job they will do. And it's true! Just look at the folks who work for Google. There are all sorts of perks as well as incredible flexibility that come with working for such a company. People shouldn't have to be defined by where they work. Rather, they should be allowed a little more freedom and flexibility. However, many bosses are reluctant to let up on the whole 9-5 workday theory because they are afraid that their employees will take advantage of them. While it is reasonable to think this way at times, you sometimes have to branch out and test things out for yourself. At a larger company, it can sometimes be difficult to know the individual habits of each employee to know whether or not they are trustworthy individuals. However, if you are managing a small group of people, then it is much easier to see who has and has not proven themselves to be a reliable member of the team.

The other thing that people in supervisor positions need to be aware of is micromanaging. Nothing turns people off more than being micromanaged. From checking in too frequently “just to see how things are going” to wanting constant updates to the hour of what work was completed, micromanaging not only drains company morale, but it kills employee motivation to want to do any better. It is also one of the leading causes for high turnover rates at certain jobs-especially those that don't pay as well. After all, who would want to go to work knowing that once they get there, every little thing that they do will be scrutinized ten times over? It's draining. By working together with employees, managers can help overcome this desire to micromanage. We need to work together as employees and employers to communicate more effectively and trust one another.