Facework can be explained as a notion of metaphorical face, which represents how that individual is viewed. Facework is an important part of interpersonal communication strategies, where it helps to elevate or hinder a conversation.

In my few years of management experience, I’ve utilized this strategy many times, specifically in every performance review. It’s important to understand, every employee is valuable, and they have strengths and weaknesses. Everyone loves to hear about the strength, but not as much about their weaknesses. The notion of self-image becomes even stronger depending on the racial, demographical variation, whereas a young manager, it’s hard to criticize people who are working for more than ten or twenty years in that position. We followed a sandwich approach, including 360-degree peer review, everything to ensure the facework, where the employees are feeling threatened, or demoralized due to losing their face. The good thing was, we had a minimum turnover, the employer was confident at their task, and a strong moral. But on the other side, they didn’t know what they are doing badly, and eventually a risk of getting fired for repeating mistakes. I’ve developed my skills under such conditions, where I found being straightforward may lose some facework, but will save the employee in the long run.

When I was on the other side, my supervisor didn’t consider my strong work ethic, integrity, and face. They tried to follow a general structure to convey my mistakes, and I strongly defended myself, and eventually, my loyalty decreased. Facework is important in the culture I am from, the culture strongly values the facework of both parties. I avoid any situation of confronting and thus suffer in many ways. People from the sub-culture often avoid straight pointing out people for their mistake, instead, try to indicate self-judgment. I think the culture in the USA is more straightforward, and people appreciate and understand the value of feedback.