The Infantalisation of work and why we should all grow up.
The cult of youth in the workplace has bought in an adolescent mindset to the world of work. Susan Neiman’s book Why Grow Up? makes a fascinating read on why being grown up is complicated. There is a balance between how the world is and how it ought to be and juggling the two is the essence of what it means to be grown up.
It is comforting or simple to imagine the world of work as a place that does not need changing or accepting the is and rejecting the ought. Just as it is opposite to reject the is and expect the workplace to be the ought.
It would be easy to view the modern workplace with a cynical view or as “grumpy old person”, but the grown up view is to observe what is in place (what works, what doesn’t) and think about what the workplace should look like (although care must be taken to exclude the false nostalgia where memories are invoked from a perception of ideal at some point in the past).
One of the noticeable aspects of the adolescent workplace is the notion of a work life balance which in practice is heavily weighted to the life over work, This is sold with the “always on” and “flexible is good ticket”, in practice this is where it is okay to stream music over the wireless headphones, keep checking social feeds (Instagram, Messenger, Snap etc), prolifically chat to colleagues through Slack giving the impression of productivity and the “popping out” for various appointments during the working day. This also manifests itself with a mindset where the working day is the contracted hours and being asked to do a little extra around a deadline feels like a “breach of contract”.
On the other side there this is a cult of presence time demanded by the leaders, after all the workplace is a fun, zany community and why wouldn’t you want to stay longer. The downside is the time can be filled by a multiple of online distractions and there is little sign of productivity gains.
Trestle tables shared with a bunch of other people does not magically mean everyone communicates, it shuts people off when they pop the headphones on to block the background chatter.
There is also the issue of phone calls in an open office environment, in a company setting the idea that everyone can hear means knowledge is somehow diffused, in a co-working setting the phone booths offer some privacy and respects fellow co-workers for some peace and quiet.
The free bar, coffee, organic herbal teas and cakes in the main workplace are designed to bring people together, it does perhaps help in socialising but what benefits are there to the working environment? Has there really been an improvement in productivity through an increase in socialising in the in the coffee station in the middle of an open plan office?
Is there a place for music, table football, and the chillout zones in a modern work environment? It perhaps has a role for making the work environment a more fun place, but is this a good thing as a goal in itself?
There is an uncomfortable truth about fun in the workplace, is that the dictionary definition of fun is “enjoyment, amusement, or light-hearted pleasure”, does not match reality and is not an aim in itself, work is about collaboration, fulfilment, satisfaction, and outputs.
What does a grown up workplace look like?
Organisations of all sizes have a mission and vision, there is a division of labour where specialists work on their individual tasks to a common purpose and what binds the organisation is communication.
Communication is a cornerstone to effective teamwork and here is where it needs to be a conscious effort to combine experience (what works well) with the striving to improve (ideals) which requires some understanding of what good looks like.
Small offices for knowledge workers are ideal places where the individuals can focus on the work in hand and not have distractions. It also signals that the person is busy if they are in their office. In addition to the re-design of the workplace to smaller units, there is also the need to consider the place for the barrage of emails and instant messages which potentially disrupt the working day. Is it okay to put a “do not disturb” note on the Slack channel? It is often the case where something “urgent” solves itself with time. There is a heavy cost to “context switching” and the myth of the heroic multi-tasker persists (with little evidence that it is effective).
No organisation can do without meeting rooms or indeed a place to have a break (free tea and a nice coffee machine are not mandatory but do wonders for staff morale). The meeting rooms need careful thought about where they are in relation to the offices, the sizes and above all a good system to book the rooms.
A serious rather than fun theme to a workplace brings the right atmosphere, this doesn’t mean that a workplace is acres of grey or beige and endless corridors.
How do we keep our grown up workplace current?
As we learned, being grown up is juggling the conflict between the is and the ought. This conflict makes us question what we have and look at what we should be thinking about. A nice mechanism for this is a form of continuous improvement where there are three questions asked; what do we continue doing, what do we start doing and what do we stop doing?
This general approach is applied to working practices and to the physical environment.
We know open plan has not delivered the gains in communication and productivity, can it be tweaked by moving the desks around in clusters and introducing high backed chairs, or bringing back partitions (but not grey ones)? There are benefits to the open plan, hot desking idea which brings flexibility, but in reality how often do teams need to reconfigure? Certainly not on a daily basis? Don’t people tend to use the same space every day and get territorial? There are no proven benefits to swapping who you sit next to every day.
The adolescent approach is to defend the “new” and resist any change, the grown up one is to look at what is working, what needs changing and manage the conflict.
What are your views of the modern office? Should work be fun or serious? Open plan or smaller clusters? Is it okay to signal “busy” when concentrating on a task in hand? What is the true cost of context switching? Please share your views in the comments!
