RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1939, Page 6

RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK

VARIETY AND AN OBJECTIVE OUTLOOK.

The problem of personal relationships in a man’s working life was discussed by Professor John Hilt,on. professor of industrial relations, at Cambridge University, in a lecture at Leeds. 'A man,” said Professor Hilton, ‘-spends most of the hours he is awake al the place where ho works, and how he gets on with those around him largely determines his happiness or unhappiness in life.” In these days, he continued, people were far more inclined to be wrapped up in themselves than they used to be, and were inclined to consider their own ambitions exclusively. This resulted in the development of a thwarted and warped personality, and also in inefficiency since the man who was always thinking of his own interests would not be valuable to his employers. He would therefore not even forward his own

advancement. Professor Hilton criticised two other tendencies, which, he said, were typical of this age. First, there was the tendency to grow what was popularly called “an inferiority complex." This was really due to conceit, and could be recognised in men who "had a grievance” and a feeling that right had not been done to them. Such a person was the biggest nuisance of all on the staff of a large firm, and this characteristic was almost certain to act to the man’s own detriment. The second tendency was to create a pattern, which was. in fact, our idealised selves, to which we thought everyone ought to conform. Wo compared our colleagues with this pal lorn and judged them accordingly. The joy of life. Professor Hilton pointed out, was in the variety of mankind. and there must be tolerance of the other person’s little oddities. Further. variety among its employees was essential to the health and prosperity of a firm.