Questions
Is there a “rightness of fit” between you and the work you do?
Are burnout or rust-out concerns for you?
The impersonal work world
In our quest for work that fits with our gifts and life situation, the work environment itself may be problematic. Scott Adams's cartoon strip Dilbert exemplifies the cynical, conflict-ridden, fragmented world of work that many of us know. There is an incompetent but powerful boss who is not respected by his employees although they outwardly kow-tow to him. There is the nerdy computer geek, incapable of seeing beyond his techie horizons and socially very inept. And there is Dilbert, the alienated worker who does as little as he can get away with, ridicules the boss behind his back, and suffers the indignities of office power-plays and control issues. Through humour Adams caricatures a work world that is crippled by bureaucracy, stifled by rigid systems of management, and undermined by an absence of trust.
The success of the Dilbert cartoon suggests that many of us recognize this fictitious workplace. It is particularly within large organizations that the dysfunctional characteristics emerge, as hierarchies and regulations are developed to ensure that the jobs get done and employees are treated uniformly. A degree of impersonality enters, which inevitably separates bosses from workers and tends to create and perpetuate an Us and Them mentality. With a high degree of specialization in work now, people are often also working in isolation from their peers. Metaphorically we have moved from the family farm to the typing pool to the office cubicle, and the impersonal modes of communication made possible by email and other electronic media have further eroded human interaction at work.
In one telling cartoon strip, Dilbert's boss has his employees wearing electronic collars, so that he can track their whereabouts in the building at any time. “Once you got used to working in cubicles, like gerbils,” he says, “we knew anything was possible” [Adams 1996, 76]. A common complaint at work is that people feel like rats running faster and faster on wheels, or trapped in the constant performance of repetitive tasks. They may feel obliged to skip lunch breaks in order to get the work done, and a sense of hostility builds up, aimed at those who are requiring this level of output. Managers are in turn under pressure from executives, who are trying to steer their organizations through turbulent economic times with maximum efficiency and profit, and the cycle of resentment and tension continues.
Conflict and criticism
Where community and trust do not flourish in an organization, adversarial positions will often be taken between individuals and between groups almost instinctively. Like our parliamentary system with its government and opposition seats set squarely opposite one another, dysfunctional workplace dynamics deal in conflict and power struggles. And the fallout is cynicism, fatigue, and stress. No organization is immune from the problem of destructive conflict, whether it is a multinational corporation or a convent, unless it consciously works to promote good personal relationships among its members, marked by trust and mutual respect. This is especially true in the touchy areas of expectations, evaluations, and feedback.
Franco's Story
Franco is passionate about his work. He takes his job very seriously, working long hours to accomplish the many tasks he takes on. When asked to accept a new project, Franco rarely says No. Several years ago, Franco's organization was engaged in a strategic planning exercise that was looking at priorities for the short- and long-term. One of the initial activities of the strategic planning process was a survey of the employees to determine the key values of the organization. Franco was asked to lead a task force to conduct the survey and, of course, he said Yes.
The task was complex, with input required from across the organization. Franco's task force conducted the survey and various forums to hear from everyone. They then studied the results and wrote a report. The report was circulated and generated a lot of interest. Franco was pleased to have the work done and felt a great sense of accomplishment. Then things changed. There was widespread criticism of the report. The results were ridiculed. People argued that the survey was not conducted properly and, therefore, the results were wrong. In fact, all that Franco did was to tell members of the organization what they themselves had answered on the survey.
What they were really challenging were the answers of their peers. The people complaining were generally the older employees of the organization who did not listen to the viewpoints of the newer members who now made up the majority. Since they did not listen to the younger employees, the older employees did not recognize these values when they were reported by Franco. Unfortunately, Franco got caught in the middle of this. His report was, in fact, accurate. But Franco took the criticism very personally. He was quite devastated that his work, so carefully done with much consultation, could be viewed as flawed. The conflict wounded him personally and deeply, and the hurt remained for many months.
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