What’s your view of socializing with customers or vendors outside of work?

Our reader poll today asks: What’s your view of socializing with customers or vendors outside of work?

• It’s a great idea, and I strongly encourage it – 14%
  
• It’s a good idea, but it needs to be limited and monitored – 62%
  
• It’s a good idea, but it needs to be limited and monitored – 62%
  
• It’s not a good idea — a lot of things can go wrong – 14%
  
• I avoid it, and instruct my team members to do the same – 10%

Socialize but with boundaries. 76% of you are in favor of socializing with customers or vendors outside of official business. That said, the majority of you prefer to have limits on those interactions to prevent things from going awry. Another large percentage of you (24%) are against the idea of any outside of work socializing precisely because so many things can go wrong. Given many social events can involve alcohol or more relaxed environments, it’s easy for poor judgment to be exercised and those actions can carry large at-work implications. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of how appropriate out-of-work socializing is, be sure to clearly and frequently communicate expectations and standards to your team. And when bad things do happen, ensure people are held accountable and standards are recommunicated and reinforced.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.