Cultivating a Health Workplace Culture

Healthy Workplace Culture or Corporate Cult??

I used to think that employers that provided on site day care, fitness centres, cafeterias and after hours social events were leading edge employers. This may be the case in theory, but practically speaking when the kids are on site, you eat on site and hang-out after hours with your work mates, you world shrinks. When this happened to me, very quickly I began to see how my workplace culture was beginning to become cultis.

Boundaries between family, community and work began to melt away. It was kind of scary because I thought that the ultimate workplace would be one where day care was available et al. Then I realized that my work was becoming all I was. My friends were work peers, my social calendar was work-based and staying at work a little later was not a big deal and the day care was on site.

Slowly I began to feel guilty going home at the end of the schedule work day. The other staff routinely working late without any thought to overtime or any other compensation. It was just expected and encouraged for "the corporation." I remember the boss' worse insult was to accuse you of being a "clock watcher."

For example, when I took off a Friday to spend time with my parents who were visiting from out of town. I remember my boss calling on the Friday at 8 am and asking whether I would come in for the Friday morning weekly meeting. I explained that I had booked the day off as vacation sometime ago as my parents were visiting. My boss said, and this is a direct quote "well all are you are doing is having coffee and chatting. You can do that later, why not come into the meeting for a couple of hours. The time at the meeting would be more constructive"

My workplace was invading my life. Then I realized that I was not alone -- I came across the book by Dave Arnott called The Corporate Cult: The Insidious Lure of the All-Consuming Organization. The book is bang on target when it details that a healthy balance must be achieved between between work, community and family. Check it out at www.davearnott.com .

Teach'em to Fish Rather than Giving Them Fish

Cultivating a healthy workplace culture without becoming cultish is pivotal. From what I can determine a cult is "an interest followed with exaggerated zeal." Employers want staff believing mission, vision and vital objectives whole-heartedly, but not with zeal. So where is the line between zeal and whole-heartedness??

The ideal work place culture should use transformational leadership to encourage staff to understand the mission, vision and vital objectives. In understanding "the way ahead", staff will be able to do things and make appropriate decisions.

The biblical proverb of "give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life", is fundamental. The best leader is not one that does everything for you - but is the one that sets the parametres and lets you do it yourself. Through clear expectations in line with mission, vision and vital objectives, the parametres are set. Laurie Beth Jones' book Teach Your Team to Fish states, "When values are internalized, the need for rules diminishes."

Five years ago, after having spent many years in the Navy, I would have thought it absurd to think that a one-pager on corporate values could replace hundreds of pages of rules and regulations. The more I think about it now, I am convinced that if the workplace culture inculcates values and beliefs then there is no needs for endless rules and regulations. In the past everytime something went wrong we would turn to the rules and regulations. If one did not address the issue that happened a new rule would be written to make sure the problem did not recur. If we have core values and beliefs clearly lived and understood, a one pager, or the ten commandments, would pretty well do us. "Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life."