Unhappy home life

There are many drivers of human behavior with home being one such driver.

Home is an important place as it is where we live with our family. It is also significant in that it is where we develop and grow from an infant to a child to a teenager then on to young adult.

From there we move into mature adult and older adult. Even though work is mostly a feature of our young adult, mature adult and part of our older adult lives, our family group is the constant theme in all stages of our lives.

Homelife is an ongoing influence of that part of our daily lives that we fill up with work. Therefore, if our household is safe and secure, friendly and welcoming and has people in it that we respect and love, then it is a great platform for us as we venture into the world of work.

On the other hand, if where we live is troubled, where arguments and ridicule are dominant events, where fear is used to control us and other members of our family, then home is not such a good place.

It does not provide the stable and nurturing environment that we need as a basis for us to enter relationships with people outside of our household, such as in the work situation.

When our homelife only partially fulfills our need for learning how to interact with the outside world we will not be equipped socially and not have the knowledge and skills of how to behave in certain work situations.

This is where a lot of people, especially young people, find it hard as they can become subject to ridicule where the group thinks of them as different or ignorant of group norms.

The negative reactions from group members can be devastating for younger employees as they don’t really know why they have been excluded from the group.

Sometimes when this occurs, the affected person will modify behaviors to suit the group, rebel against the group creating further disharmony or leave the job. These events can play a significant role in shaping the young person’s view of work, both in the present and long into the future.

If our home is a continuous battle ground then some of the conflict will overflow into the work place. If a person is degraded at home then work behaviors may see the person trying to regain some measure of balance or self esteem by being dominant over other people at work. It could go the other way where the person is submissive and plays out the family member role at work.

There are many different reasons for behaviors which are beyond the scope of this article, however, it is useful to consider that the activities happening at work may not be the only issues driving the behavior of your team.

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