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| DESCRIPTION | |
| When it's lacking: - Work and fun are largely seen as mutually exclusive. - The culture is weighed down with protocol. - Employees are expected to wear formal business clothing. - An outside observer would call the workplace "stuffy." |
When it's thriving: + An open-door policy is practiced by everyone, not because business books encourage it, but because it seems like the natural thing to do. + There's no rigid dress code. Employees use their judgment, wearing what's appropriate for the situation. + It's not unusual for a major project to turn into a major pizza party -- with the work still getting done. + Employees are comfortable decorating their work spaces with photos, plants, cartoons, posters, and more. |
| EXAMPLES |
| When John talks about the ingredients of a meaningful workplace, he always comes
back to...sugar. His office has an annual tradition called the "Festival of
Treats," in which employees come to work loaded down with cakes, cookies, and
candy. The event is held in September -- a typically slow month for the office. The
sugarfest gets people eating, to be sure -- but also talking. In some cases, people
who've kept their conversations to an occasional hallway hello finally get the chance
to chat. "It always succeeds in loosening us up," says John. "Walking into our office is like walking into a mausoleum, people are that stiff," says Irene, a secretary for an engineering firm. On her first day on the job, she was taken aside and "encouraged" to wear more formal attire. A year after being there, she worked up the courage to suggest a holiday party -- something informal at a local restaurant. It turned out that a party was being planned -- a formal wine and cheese mixer at a local art museum. "Every time I leave the office at the end of the day," she says, "I feel like I need emergency oxygen." |
| ACTION IDEAS |
| Formality tends to be deeply rooted in an organization's culture, so the first thing
to do is to calibrate your expectations. Set them low. Do what you can as an individual, and start small. One quick yet visible tactic is to add a few informal touches to your work space. (A budget analyst for one rather stuffy financial organization decorated his filing cabinet with magnetic words. Visitors couldn't resist the urge to compose their own silly sentences and poems.) If you can't bring some informality to the workplace, try the reverse approach. That's right, take the workplace to the informality. Organize a picnic, for example, and encourage people to bring their families. Without many of the formal cues -- like wood paneling and wingtips, for starters -- people will start to relax and mingle. Some of this informality is guaranteed to find its way back to the workplace. In some cases, formality is written right into the policies of the organization -- as with dress codes. Avoid challenging these rules early into your efforts to informalize things. Civil disobedience ("He wore shorts?!") will make a statement, but it won't change anything -- except, perhaps, your job status. |
| Copyright 1998-2002 by Tom Terez and Tom Terez Workplace Solutions, Inc. P.O. Box 21444, Columbus, Ohio USA 43221-0444. Tel. 614-571-9529..mail@BetterWorkplaceNow.com HOME | 10-Minute Briefing | Free Online Tools | Insight and Inspiration | Laugh and Learn | Buzzword Bingo | Kits, Books, and Tools | Keynotes and Services | Meet Tom Terez | Tell a Friend | Bronze Access |
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