Working as a supervisor

you have to realize that this tension that you feel goes two ways and that a good half of it belongs to you. you also need to realize that making rounds is a part of your responsibility. unfortunately, being aware of people being offended goes with the territory. is it possible that in your own past this may go back to your own feeling of offensiveness you harbored toward supervisors or people in authority? now, before you want to start throwing things at me and calling me names, really take some time to think about that question because some of that tension you feel is self-created and comes from within yourself from somewhere. one of the very first lessons i came to learn as a supervisor was that it is better to first educate before pointing a finger and accusing and writing people up for doing their jobs incorrectly. that is the respectful way to handle employees who are trying to do their jobs correctly as well as remaining friendly and personable at the same time. so, i always try to put on a professional appearance of being friendly, personable, kind of nothing bothers me (at least not showing on the outside) attitude which makes me more approachable, hopefully. still, there will always be employees who will treat you differently just because you are their boss. i will act like i am part of the staff even when there are clearly those who are snubbing me. i just ignore them because it is their problem, not mine. it has to do with their deep rooted attitudes toward authority and it is unlikely that you will ever be able to change them. as you become more familiar with your job responsibilities and more confident with what you are doing, these feelings you are having will become less important. right now, you are longing for acceptance by the staff and that is something that is only going to come with time. you need to recognize that this need for acceptance is one of emotion and need for human interaction and acceptance and has nothing to do with your actual job duties.