Do me a favour: If you help someone at work, don’t expect payback
Assuming deals are reciprocal can get us into trouble – and make us prowl the office like a mafia don.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Building networks by helping each other is one thing, but it’s quite another to set up obligations as a safety net if a workplace has become a threatening environment.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS
Miranda Green
As she stepped down as Home Secretary, Mrs Suella Braverman produced with a flourish what she believed was proof of a deal with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. She claimed he agreed to her conditions for taking on the role. But there is a technical hitch: he never signed it.
It was the latest example of a phenomenon that has long fascinated me: people who make deals that turn out to be imaginary. We’ve probably all seen a friend come a cropper by assuming a personal commitment was mutual, only to be let down with a bump. At work, similar problems seem most often to centre on misinterpreting doing favours, or giving help as a down payment on a future reciprocal good turn – mentally banking a useful IOU.
