In Russian companies, on the contrary, informal relationships can be given a lot of time.
Conversations in a smoking room, at a tea party or at a corporate party can be the basis for making an important decision. And if you avoid them, you can stay away from serious projects or important changes. At the same time, too close a relationship with colleagues can damage the cause. After all, objectivity in evaluating the work of the employee is lost, and personal insults or conflicts can also be mixed.
Especially difficult is such people who are focused on the result, and their work is hampered by endless gatherings and invitations to discuss personal questions of employees. Men often suffer from such problems. Women in relationships with colleagues sometimes have to keep distance for other reasons. Often this happens due to male chauvinism at work.
It only seems at first glance that women have achieved equality with men. It is worthwhile for a woman to show her ambitions at work, as she immediately declares a certain number of opponents among the male colleagues. In relationships with them, unnecessary emotions, conflicts and tension of various kinds can arise. One of the most common ways to besiege an ambitious and strong competitor for a man is to reduce the distance in communication. Affected in his self-esteem, a male careerist can not stop at anything in an attempt to bypass the opponent.
So the question of how to keep a distance in relations with colleagues, for a woman often - this is a matter of life and death. And if you say the office language - the issue of reduction or enhancement. In order not to fall for the bait of an experienced schemer, you just need to know the basic techniques that men use against women in business.
Often, men admit visible good nature and acceptance of women's ideas only in order to understand the course of her thought. They can easily give the idea of a colleague for their own, if they see that the idea is valuable. Many women are discouraged and demoralized. But do not give up. It must be accepted as a fact that such behavior of men is very typical and common. To keep distance in relations with them is sometimes important only in order to avoid the opportunity to present a valuable idea to a competitor for a possible increase or a premium. You always have the right to take advantage of male stereotypes about female inconstancy and offer your colleague some "duck" as your idea. And to give really valuable thoughts to public meetings where your authorship will be noted by many.
Good examples of how to keep a distance in dealing with women colleagues, we get from America and Europe. There, the issues of oppression of women in the office have long been studied. And not only from sexual harassment, which led to glass walls or to partitions instead of walls in the office. This topic has been studied and in terms of how men explicitly or implicitly counteract the movement of women on the career ladder. One of the ways of such pogoing by a colleague for men are small assignments, which do not fit the status of a female leader. For example, it may be a request to make coffee or go to the warehouse for paper clips. Of course, you can do it for them. But only if you know how to put the case so that your colleague will make coffee for you next day or bring paper for the printer. If you do not have enough spirit to do this in a relationship with men, then just give up small assignments, referring to employment or to the fact that it is not part of your duties.
For the sake of justice it is worth noting that the problem of distance in relations with colleagues torments not only women. Men even more often suffer from it, if they work in a women's or mixed team. Nothing that does not lead a man out of himself, like the need to listen to colleagues talking about childish colds and family problems. If a man does not join the conversation or even shows aggression and impatience, he can get even more complicated tangle of problems. Probably, it is difficult to avoid such conversations altogether. But you can put the conditions of the female part of the team that such conversations were maintained only during tea drinking, or not in the office, but in a smoking room or a canteen.
There are also situations where keeping a distance with colleagues is simply unrealistic. There is a type of organization in which the principle of nepotism is maintained. At an important meeting, it may be a question of the weddings of nephews or the funeral of your beloved aunt, and it is impossible to object to such situations and is meaningless. This atmosphere is usually found in the family business or in a small company where everyone knows the founder father personally. If you see that everyone but you is ready to share secrets of personal life with each other, and your detachment is perceived as hostile, it is likely that you should look for another job. Indeed, frankly speaking, it is simply impossible to keep a distance in relations with employees in some types of Russian business.