Decrapify Work or Die (no, really!)
Never going back
Well, did I ever poke the hornet’s nest by writing about returning to the office! Some people have a real emotional connection to the office (especially if their job depends on us all using them!)
In truth, the office is like a second home for many of us (indeed, the big tech firms try to make it better than home so that people stay and work) and like home, it can be heaven or hell or somewhere in between.
The office is central to many people’s mental construct of work. It gives them a sense of place and is part of their sense of belonging. It’s a large part of their social structure, it provides enjoyable experiences.
And for others it’s a prison, a place of mind-numbing tedium where they are forced to spend time with people they don’t really like and be subjected to all kinds of hurts and deprivations.
There are lots of stats about how much people want to return to the office. The really startling one for me, from this O2 research is that 32% NEVER want to go back to the office. At all.
What does that tell you about engagement, sense of belonging, identity? The quality of the human relationships? A lot right. And not in a good way. This is not all down to people having a shitty commute.
I remember the comment that came up last week, that the office was a part of the patriarchy, designed for the benefit of men and consequently ill-suited, and even hostile, to women. And also to people with disabilities, carers, minorities - basically anyone who’s not an old white dude.
So now we have the opportunity to change that. To make the workplace more open and accessible, to equalise opportunities, to enhance people’s lives. And if that involves an office, we’d better make it one that people are attracted to, rather than forced to go to.
This is an opportunity we absolutely must grasp because that will go a long way to decrapify work.
LATEST NEWS - a post on Linked IN - the office is a platform to enable value creation and the physical part is only one element. Discuss!
Mind Your Language!
The words we use are important, they have power both to accentuate or obscure. Corporate speak tends towards the latter, it is awash with euphemisms that we use to take the sting out of the actions. There are all the obvious ones about getting rid of people, from ‘letting them go’ through ‘downsizing’ and ‘rightsizing’ to ‘redundancy’ itself but there are many more areas where the truth is hidden behind sophistry.
The worst is around the treatment of people by their superiors. We talk about ‘bullying’ but it’s time we called it for what it is. It is abuse, plain and simple.
‘Bullying’ is what happens in the playground, when children are learning to socialise (although it can be brutal there too, when it goes too far). The word softens our perception of what’s really happening, which is that one human is abusing another. Just because it is mostly psychological rather than physical doesn’t lessen it - arguably it makes it worse because it is more insidious, more subtle, and often escapes sanction.
What we see in toxic workplaces is the normalisation of violence. Bosses shouting at the subordinates, humiliating them in front of their colleagues, blaming them for things not in their control. Or just ignoring them, failing to take any notice of them or give them any support and direction.
There are four forms of violence (as I learnt in a Drinking Dialogues session led by the international mediator Charles Rojzman)
mistreatment
humiliation
abandonment or indifference
guilt-tripping
I can immediately think of many instances of these in my career and they are commonplace in many work environments. In fact, they are not even considered exceptional. “It’s a high-pressure atmosphere”, “People get heated because they are passionate”, “It just the stresses and strains of getting things done” are all trotted out to excuse these behaviours.
Enough. It’s abuse. These are acts of violence. They have no place in the workplace, and people who commit them have no place in leadership roles.
Just because no punches were thrown doesn’t mean no-one got hurt or that it wasn’t intentional.
Burn, Baby, Burn
Burnout is now recognised as a condition and it’s becoming an epidemic. Gallup data for the US (pre-COVID) shows that 28% of employees felt burnt out, whilst 45% reported feeling burnout some of the time.
This Forbes article “Why you can’t Yoga your way out of burnout” (you can see why it got my attention, right?) listed the causes of burnout as
Lack of autonomy
High workplace and work pressure
lack of leader/colleague support
Unfairness
Values disconnect
Lack of Recognition
In the modern workplace, burnout isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. If you talk about human resources, assets or capital (all terms used to describe real people), you will create business models that consume them. (Words are important, remember?)
All of the causes of burnout are eminently fixable but let’s look at the first, lack of autonomy. We know that autonomy is a key component of motivation. (I wonder if these could be related?)
If only there was a solution to give employees more autonomy. Like self-organising teams. Maybe connected together, using technology. Aren’t there some businesses out there that do that sort of thing?
No that’s ridiculous, Colin. Let’s just carry on using people as resources or assets. Chuck a few more on the fire, keep the furnaces burning and the machine turning. There’s plenty more where they came from.
If people are going to get the autonomy they want AND NEED, they are going to have to take it. It’s time for mutiny, time to Be More Pirate.
Ups and downs
Well, that got a bit feisty, didn't it? Seems I have got my mojo back after being in the doldrums last weekend.
I journaled about what I have to be grateful for (which was a LONG list) but was still low. I could have then beaten myself up (as i would have done in the past) about 'not having any right to be miserable' but I remember that misery is not an Olympic event, it doesn't work like that. I have every right to my feelings, they are telling me something and I should listen to them. Besides, I think I was feeling sorry for everyone, not just myself.
So I went for a run, got some time in nature and gradually came out of my funk.
So if you're feeling low, that's OK. Be kind to yourself, honour your feelings, take the time you need to restore yourself. Because if you want to help others, you've got to help yourself first