Jul 17 08
Telling the Plain, Unvarnished Truth at Work: Part 3
By Art Bell
(Third of three parts. Part one is here. Part two is here.)
Peers that Threaten Candor
Any parent with a junior high- or high school-aged child knows the extraordinary pressure exerted (purposely or unwittingly) by the child’s peers. Although that susceptibility to caring too much about “what others think” fades for many with growing maturity, other people (perhaps because of inborn personality tendencies) carry social sensitivities straight from school years into the workplace. Vivian, a California department manager in a large clothing store, talks about the problem: “I manage Young Women’s Wear in a national chain department store. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like I’m always looking over my shoulder to keep track of what Rachel is doing in her department (Formal Wear), Alphonse in his (Men’s Suits), and all the rest in the store. There’s a constant bickering match going on among managers that has nothing to do with the manager, who kind of leaves us all alone to do our thing. Take stocking, for example. When boxes arrive to be unpacked, there are a few hours when my clerks are out there with boxes in the aisles doing the work of getting the clothes on shelves and hangars. But if those boxes are in the aisle longer than about two hours, Rachel will start gossiping to other managers about how I don’t run a tight ship in my department. She should talk! I saw two of her clerks come in at least half an hour late a couple days ago. Rachel didn’t discipline them at all. My clerks get to work right on time or they hear about it from me. Alphonse is always looking over at my department and rolling his eyes when he sees any of us sitting down instead of standing up. He makes all his sales people stand up even when no customers are in the department. I told him that some of my people have physical issues and have to avoid being on their feet all day. What I said was less than candid, but it got him off my back, at least for now.”
In Vivian’s case, peer pressure exerts a powerful influence over what she says and does during the business day. As she says, she is always “looking over her shoulder” to judge the reaction of others before deciding on her own course of communication or action. Taken together, the relationship among the department managers in Vivian’s store can rightly be called the “company culture”—the unspoken and unwritten rules that nevertheless guide behavior at work. At some companies, peer pressure discourages “rate-busting,” that is, when one employee works hard and ends up producing more than his or her peers. This work achievement unfortunately makes peers appear, by contrast, to be somehow inferior or lazy. In this kind of environment, top performers quickly find themselves alienated and isolated from their peer group; lunch invitations dry up, coffee breaks are solo occasions, and the offending performer isn’t included in workplace jokes and banter. Through such social punishment, the person is “taught” not to work so quickly or so well. Put another way, peers let it be known (and felt) that they don’t trust a star.
At other companies, the culture enforces a “code of silence”—most familiar, perhaps, from the countless movies and TV shows depicting such a code within police departments. Employees in such a corporate culture hold themselves back from any initiative or original thinking. They are tight-lipped, sticking only to basic job requirements. “Move that box” means precisely that, in the code of silence culture. It does not mean “let me know if you see that the box is leaking” or “be extra careful because the box contains fragile items.” In this business environment, employees have no trust in management. They don’t even think of contributing good ideas for work improvement; letting the boss know how or why a problem occurred; or ask for more responsibility than the boss has already assigned.
Like angry bosses and too-nice bosses, company culture itself can motivate workers to be less than candid to the point of withholding needed information. Lacking trust, the energy that was intended to flow into productivity, customer service, and organizational improvement ends up being spent on in-house conflict, endless disciplinary procedures, work interruption, sabotage, and insubordination.
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From Winning with Trust in Business, by Arthur H. Bell and Richard Cohn (Pelican, 2008).
Copyright © 2008 Art Bell
