The relationship between companies and employees is very similar to a marriage.

As in marriages, companies and employees are trying to achieve targets together. As in marriages, the relationship between a company and its employees is mostly based on trust.

If you really look into it, some company-employee relationships actually last longer and take more energy than husband-wife ones. I once had a co-worker who was married three times during the time we worked together.

It comes as no surprise then that, as well as in marriages, as soon as trust vanishes, the relationship between a company and its employees degrades rapidly. If this loss of trust happens, the relationship must be either rescued or it will collapse as well.

Trust is dependent on two variables: transparency and communication

If your partner comes home consistently late without any apparent reason, chances are that your trust will start to suffer at some point. There is no transparency to the partner’s actions.

The same applies to our corporate environment: if your supervisior consistently screens important information regarding your job, chances are that your trust towards the company will suffer.

It goes without saying that these scenarios are totally reciprocal: if you are the one consistently coming home late or screening information from your company, you are the one hurting trust and therefore damaging the relationship.

When recruiting new employees we normally ask candidates for their reason to change jobs. Digging deep, the core reason will almost always boil down to a lack of trust and a broken relationship between the candidate and his/her previous company. If the person was totally satisfied with the company, then he/she wouldn't be looking to change jobs.

Mending broken relationships takes energy

Mending broken relationships is a pretty hard exercise, which we seldom are brave enough to endure. If communication and transparency are important assets when keeping trust alive, they are six-fold more important in restoring a relationship back to the level of trust.

So remember to...

  • Work hard to keep your employer-employee relationship alive by being transparent and communicative.
  • Make sure that all those around you are aware of what is happening, of where we are going and what we are doing.
  • Push your supervisors to feed you useful information regarding your job.
  • Tell your team members what you expect from them and help them achieve it.
  • Keep the trust always up and alive or the consequences might stress you out like a divorce always does.