In the original British version of The Office,Tim Canterbury, the series' everyman character, remarks, "The people you work with are people you were just thrown together with. I mean, you don't know them. It wasn't your choice. And yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family. But probably all you have in common is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for eight hours a day." It's a particularly bleak moment on the show -- and the show is a great example of how a bad workplace culture can really kill any possibility for success an organization might have.
There is something of a stereotype that techies don't have the greatest social skills around. But when it comes to figuring how to get along with those people they spend eight -- or ten, or twelve, or sometimes more -- hours a day walking around together on the same piece of carpet, they actually seem to learn how to get along with them. Maybe they aren't as close to family, but for many of us, they become much more than just people we're thrown together with.
Great article Josh! The one additional thing I would add is that communication is another piece that fosters healthy corporate culture. At a former workplace, all of my peers and I had healthy relationships that included a lot of trust and organizing parties. However, no one had an especially good relationship with our supervisors and upper management because they often waited to address company changes, such as a change in relationship with a customer, for weeks or sometimes months, well after rumors had begun circulating. On the flip side, there was also sometimes an expectation that people who were not invited to a meeting be aware of what happened in that meeting (of course, there were no agendas or meeting notes one could obtain to get caught up). Probably the worst example of their communication skills is that someone's layoff was announced to the office while he was on sick leave, and management forgot to tell him until a week later when he returned, which naturally put everyone in an awkward position. The stress and suspicion bred by their lack of communication with us is actually what brought all of us lower-level employees together, but I am fully confident that we could have kept this healthy level of socializing and trust AND had positive communications with upper management at the same time. It all really comes down to is showing respect. By taking the approach they did, and doing things like never attending the socials we planned (which they were always invited to), the managers and supervisors were saying that they were too busy for us and/or felt we were below them.
At my best job, we kept communication flowing with frequent meetings and posted updates, but we also had a lot of flexibility in our work as you described. There was a lot of trust that everyone would get their work done, but we tried to provide everyone with information and tools so they could do the best job possible. And, as you said, everyone worked hard and put in far more time than they would have if they were unhappy there.
The head of my department two jobs ago used to say, "Culture is like physical fitness: every day you make little choices that make the culture where you work more or less like you want it." I thought that was brilliant.
(I left that job for family reasons and have been searching for such a good place to work in vain.
by Anonymous (not verified) on 6/30/09 at 10:08 pm |reply
thanks
wow, good article and very relevant. Thank you for you insight.
Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
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Communication is also key!
Great article Josh! The one additional thing I would add is that communication is another piece that fosters healthy corporate culture. At a former workplace, all of my peers and I had healthy relationships that included a lot of trust and organizing parties. However, no one had an especially good relationship with our supervisors and upper management because they often waited to address company changes, such as a change in relationship with a customer, for weeks or sometimes months, well after rumors had begun circulating. On the flip side, there was also sometimes an expectation that people who were not invited to a meeting be aware of what happened in that meeting (of course, there were no agendas or meeting notes one could obtain to get caught up). Probably the worst example of their communication skills is that someone's layoff was announced to the office while he was on sick leave, and management forgot to tell him until a week later when he returned, which naturally put everyone in an awkward position. The stress and suspicion bred by their lack of communication with us is actually what brought all of us lower-level employees together, but I am fully confident that we could have kept this healthy level of socializing and trust AND had positive communications with upper management at the same time. It all really comes down to is showing respect. By taking the approach they did, and doing things like never attending the socials we planned (which they were always invited to), the managers and supervisors were saying that they were too busy for us and/or felt we were below them.At my best job, we kept communication flowing with frequent meetings and posted updates, but we also had a lot of flexibility in our work as you described. There was a lot of trust that everyone would get their work done, but we tried to provide everyone with information and tools so they could do the best job possible. And, as you said, everyone worked hard and put in far more time than they would have if they were unhappy there.
a nice way to look at it
The head of my department two jobs ago used to say, "Culture is like physical fitness: every day you make little choices that make the culture where you work more or less like you want it." I thought that was brilliant.(I left that job for family reasons and have been searching for such a good place to work in vain.
thanks
wow, good article and very relevant. Thank you for you insight.