How Playing Favourites may damage Morale of your Team

We often notice, some peers in our Team are dearer to the bosses than others. If you are a seasoned employee then you may come to terms with these issues but the same doesn’t apply to all. There are some employees who feel dejected, ignored or unimportant in such situations. And the feeling is especially strong when a hard-working person doesn’t get his/her due. You notice bosses praising their favourites for petty and insignificant work. You still continue working harder, hoping to get noticed but you again meet the same fate.

Unfortunately, it’s a common story at workplaces and plenty of employees face such situation at some or the other point of their career. It’s rather a depressing development from the perspective of suffering employee to deal with such situation. In such cases, employees start losing confidence and grow insecure. It’s not just harmful for the employees but also for the entire team as it lowers group productivity.

Seniors often downplay the repercussions of promoting favourites in workplace. Such, biasness often promote insecurities inside the team. Apart from keeping their credibility at stake, such behaviour by seniors also promote office politics.

Immediate seniors or bosses often limit their communication to some favourites. But this move is quite harmful as the boss grows distant from the team dynamics and ground reality. Soon team’s faith is compromised and team members start hiding relevant issues from bosses. This situation creates a favourable atmosphere for dearer staff members to control the channels of communication and even misguide seniors for personal benefits.

The bosses are significant and responsible to unite the team and maintain the team spirit. Even if a boss has his own valid reasons still it’s unfair and contrary to the goal of mutual development. Hence, personal liking and favouritism must be kept aside while giving equal and fair chance to each team member. It may not only improve the individual productivity of team members but also group cohesiveness while developing a sense of security.