When your parents went to work, whether it was for a blue collar or a white collar job, it’s a safe bet that they didn’t have to deal with the ups and downs of digital communication and social media. Technalink knows for balanced, spiritual management in a 21st century workplace, social media is just a fact of life. Work-related networks like Slack can be critical to improving office productivity and collaboration. On the other hand, social media like Facebook and Twitter can, at best, be distracting with fun, fluffy news, or, at worst, send people to dark places in their life and emotional spectrum as the bad news piles up.
In fact, some studies are now showing that more and more people are reporting chronically unhappy moods due to social media. Sometimes this can be because of the flood of bad news about what’s going on in the world. Other times, it can be self-esteem related issues as people compare their own lives to what appear to be much more glamorous, productive lives of people they know posting photos and videos of their fabulous lifestyle on social media networks.
Dealing With The Genie
It’s not feasible or reasonable to ask anyone to quit social media entirely, especially if some of the social media is related to doing a good job. Good spiritual management is not about exerting strict control over employees, but instead giving them the tools and understanding to discipline themselves, set their own policies and be invested in their own productivity and that of the company.
So while forbidding social media use is not realistic, and may even damage a company’s communication and marketing infrastructure, discussing usage policies to put limits on personal versus professional social media usage is always a good idea. Create policies for both professional and personal social media usage at work, it’s important to understand that both of these can be everyday components of the work day.
Make sure that posts on social media are kept distinct and separate. Personal family events should not appear on a company social media account. In the same way, professional opinions or comments about the business should not appear on a personal account.
Taking A Break
Another important thing to do, especially when it seems like there’s a wave of bad news happening in the country, or in other parts of the world is to take a break. Social media is great at disseminating information, but it can also amplify positive and negative message through sheer repetition. When you know something is already bad, you don’t need confirmation and repetition from thousands of other people to reinforce that.
Social media can be a powerful tool to inform yourself. Don’t let it turn into a burden that holds you down. Make sure that the spiritual management techniques you use in the office to keep your staff happy and productive are applied to yourself, and to your own relationship with social media.
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