A number of articles have been appearing recently surrounding the claim that many parents have a fondness for one of their children over another. Time magazine ran the topic as a cover piece in their October 3rd issue with the ego-inflating title of "Why Mom Liked You Best". A study cited in the Time article found that "65% of mothers and 70% of fathers exhibited a preference for one child". With all the interest surrounding the topic I began to think about how a study of that nature might translate a bit toward the relationship between manager's and the employees they manage. I would venture to take a little leap here and state that playing favorites with employees can wreak havoc on employee morale, productivity, and attrition - never mind the increase in employee relations cases it may generate. Replace the word in brackets with the one in red in this excerpt from the Time article:
"My [mom] manager didn't like my [older sister] co-worker and did like me," says Roseann Henry, an editor and the married mother of two girls. "Everyone assumed I had it great, except that my [sister] co-worker tortured me pretty much all the time — and really, what affects daily life more for [a kid] an employee, the approval of a [parent] manager or the day-to-day torment of [an older sister] another employee?"
In "Playing favorites with your employees" Eric P. Bloom, blogger for Gatehouse News Service, states that managers must put aside a very human and normal tendency to like some employees more than others and, instead, focus on treating all employees with fairness and respect. Bloom states: "As a final point, when senior executives are looking across their management team in search of future senior executives, they tend to look for people with strong leadership skills, company-compatible management styles, and respected internal reputations. Managers that blatantly pick favorites and ignore other staff members don't generally fit into this category."
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