Listening to an automated message and not getting the proper solutions to our queries can be more frustrating than ever. It sucks when you hear-‘Press 2 if you want to go back to the options’, ‘Press 9 if you want to speak to the customer care representative’, and then after long hours of waiting or repeatedly trying again and again eventually you might end up not satisfied with the response of customer care representative.

I am thinking you might have gone through this situation in your life more than once. May be calling to the mobile/internet service provider, any DMV/Bank office. And you might have cursed that experience of not getting a proper response for your queries. Didn’t you?

Going though the automated process can be overwhelming for you and for employees as well. At least once in a while you might like to have the option to meet a real human instead of having to deal with a computer or talking to robots.

Employees, they are the really suckers! Sometimes they might need attention to their problems with an atrociously bullying manager or may be need an HR representative with who they wish to discuss an unsatisfactory situation or to clarify an error in ones pay slip  or may be even to get that chronic leave balance issue updated. But he ends up requiring to put up his queries  and concerns in the computer where you call it as ‘Grievance Management System/Portal’.

Come on my HR and Manager friends, we can do better! Show a little humanity. I know people who brag about work life balance but send mails or messages to their team in the middle of the night asking for job updates.

And to my HR friends- Are all such employees at least getting a call from HR responding to their concerns and informing them that its been taken care of? This will increase the mutual respect towards each other and they feel being taken care of and connected to you.

If it is all about the best behavior that you want to see from others and followed within the organization, then don’t preach about it rather do it from your end first. Behavior can spread across the organization through observation and imitation and if it starts from the leaders then that is going to spread extensively through out the organization.

So stop being just a Mannequin and humanize yourself.