You should see my email inbox! Luckily, my workmates take care of my inbox for me. I have to write stories, draw pictures and consult.
I get the overview of the contents of my inbox at our staff meetings. Most days my email inbox contains a frothy mix of personal stories, testimonials and acid-tongued hate mail.
You wouldn't think that a career and workplace columnist would get hate mail, but then again, a lot of people are mired in fear. When you tell them what they don't want to hear, they can react strongly!
When I write a story telling job-seekers that they don't have to give up their salary history, angry old-school, blarney-and-bluster-style recruiters come out of the woodwork.
"Great way to get people blacklisted by recruiters like me!" they write, totally confirming my intuition that bullying by recruiters is a more common feature of the modern job hunt than most people realize.
HR people show up in my inbox with an eighty/twenty ratio of fans and haters. What's to hate in my HR advice? For starters, I tell HR people that their job is to be Minister of Culture in their organizations, not policy-writers or police officers.
Some HR folks don't like the new vision for HR. They are more comfortable keeping tabs on employees and writing them up for small infractions.
The world is changing fast. Already the most marketable people won't stand still to be treated like children or criminals. They'll be gone. Some employers got that memo a long time ago. They treat their employees and job applicants like gold.
Some employers are stuck in a time warp. They don't realize that their reputations precede them. Good employees won't even consider working for them.
Here in Colorado there is a list of about fifteen large employers that no self-respecting job-seeker would ever work for. They'll take bit lower pay or stick to independent consulting rather than go to work in one of these sweatshops.
All fifteen are large employers whose names you know. How can these organizations not be aware that the most talented people in the state are staying away from them in droves? Maybe they are aware, but they don't care. In a fear-filled organization, people with self-esteem wouldn't stick around anyway. They'd be fired or quit within a few months, because the atmosphere is so oppressive.
I always wonder why the Boards of Directors at these organizations are so asleep at the wheel when it comes to corporate culture. Any message board would tell a curious Board member (or shareholder, for that matter) that the company they help to lead or own a piece of is broken. Money is being wasted - very large sums -- but the hateful policies and bring-the-hammer-down leadership style persists.
Here are ten beliefs that I run into very often in organizations who haven't connected the dots yet to see that when people are set free to do great things, great things will result. If the HR folks in your organization spout this nonsense, you can try to educate them, or you can get your resume on the street and head for higher ground.
- Everyone is easily replaceable. If you don't like it here, we'll find someone who will.
- Your manager is an authority figure, and you are not. Your job is to do what you're told.
- We create these policies for a reason. It's none of your business what that reason is.
- Our mission in HR is to keep the company out of court. We are on the company's side, not yours (and yes, there are sides)!
- Someone higher in the organization than you has already settled that issue. It is not up for discussion.
- If we make an exception for you, we have to do it for everyone.
- Your job description and pay grade define you. If you have talents that aren't specified in the job description, don't expect to be paid for them.
- Don't spread your ideas around the company. Your manager will tell you what to do. It's not your job to tell people what you think.
- While you are here in this building, you're on company time. Don't engage in small talk here or take care of personal business. You can do that after hours -- unless we tell you to stay late to work on a project or send you home with work, or email you or text you, or call you.
- We will let you know when you screwed up. When you do your job, we won't say anything about it, because that's what you're paid for.
These beliefs are pretty common. They all spring from fear -- fear that we might not retain control (whatever that means) if we soften and become human at work. People in fear put up walls and work hard to let you know that they're in charge and you are not.
Fear in organization is a sickness. The best thing to do when you run into organizational fear is to name it. You can say "It sure seems like a lot of people are scared to death around here. Can we talk about that?"
If you feel afraid to do that, then you are in fear yourself. Toxic cultures retain their stranglehold on the hearts and brains of employees by staying unaddressed and unmentioned. If you want to reclaim your power, speak up about the quality of the air in your workplace.
Say something to another employee. You will find that you're not the only one who feels the way you do. We are all growing muscles together. As the flower children in the sixties used to say "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
The Human Workplace is already here. To summon it forth, all you need to do is talk about it. How magical is that?
