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I’m new to the market. In a few months since I took the new HR Director post, I’ve had people complaining nonstop, I managed somehow to get a number of employees to hate me and I saw those who couldn’t care less about the new changes we’re trying to apply. Is this normal in Kuwait?

It would have been a good opportunity if you joined the company for a week undercover [watch Undercover Boss on CBS] to get a true feedback from staff. Once employees see you as ‘not management’ they open up and tell you how things really are. As subjective as it may be, at least they’ll talk straight. However, the work environment will always have problems. Families have problems. That’s life. And when salaries, packages, bonuses and promotions are involved, it’s wartime. Happy go lucky attitude is possible to get closer to, but it requires more than a shoulder to cry on. The company, starting from the top, has to change the way business works from the inside. Dig deeper into the reasons why employees complain? Is it injustice or internal politics? Is it a personal incident or a fundamental flaw in the system? Address their concerns first and you’ll have fans everywhere you go in the company.

In most cases, employees’ problems are symptoms for defaults in the company’s processes, culture, or business model. For a quick win, engage the employees in the new ‘change’ you were hired to apply. Watching you change things makes them an audience. It’s not as fun as playing the game. You can’t stop problems from coming your way, but you can control the way you react to them…and that’s just my two cents.

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