Here in the Looking-Glass, What Culture?
And when we drove home from the office for the last time, cleared those desks of picture frames and vases and set up our laptops, and settled in for the long dark tea-time of remote work, we thought that we’d love it. Or maybe that we’d hate it. But either way we’d rather be in the office because ugh the distractions, the dog and the kids and the Fedex guy every freaking day or the grocery delivery.
The first weeks taught us moderation. We had to learn to punctuate work from home on purpose rather than as a side effect of driving to and from the office. We missed our music time, our podcast time, our alone staring out the windshield time and our morning lattes with a muffin and always tip the barista because it’s what you do, and it was slide-out-of-bed, fumble-with-the-Keurig, catch-up-on-email-on-the-balcony then showering at noon. Morning meetings are moved to 1:30 because why not — and we didn’t know when to stop so we worked 12 hour days with no deadlines. It was like a bunch of boomers playing Call of Duty but with spreadsheets and kanban boards, but we reined it in after about a month and forced sign-off time. Eventually it balanced out.
The next few months taught us reflection. I don’t know if my boss likes me anymore; I don’t know if he ever liked me. I haven’t seen him or talked to him in weeks, and I’m not sure if he’s still even there — here — whatever. Without our cues we found ourselves swimming through process, forcing ourselves into the patterns that our floor plans had forced us into before. Management by walking around is so forced now, it’s round-robin video calls listening for the subtle hesitations in the teams’ updates, and while we’re doing what we’ve always done — looking for opportunities to serve — our teams are making sure their 15 minutes in the shared spotlight are a feel-good referendum on their unstoppable productivity and relentless optimism. I don’t need help, I’ve got this — see?
Everywhere we see companies declaring this a new normal, choosing to eliminate office space, investing in work-from-anywhere technology and making a huge deal out of employee engagement, that thing where they used to have cake and punch once a month to celebrate birthdays and remind everyone that microwaving fish in the breakroom is frowned upon, a thing that’s now become discord servers and socially-distanced-come-if-you-can-but-it’s-totally-optional-and-holyShitIDon’tKnowWhatToDoDoPeopleEvenShakeHandsAnymore bring-your-own-lunch-and-your-own-cooties events in a centrally located park.
But if this is the new normal — if where I work looks the same whether I’m in Healthcare, or Technology, or aerospace, or web design, or selling eggs — then just what is it that I’m describing when I talk about my work culture? Because it’s certainly not office culture or even workplace culture. The whole idea of what’s appropriate or acceptable behavior in the workplace is kind of passe’ now, and what’s left is what behaviors are expected when I and a coworker mutually and deliberately engage in communication? Because there’s no other flavor now — no one overhearing your ugly comment about Susan’s dress or if the little dot on Tamryn’s left nostril is a freckle or a piercing and those shoes!
But if this is the new normal — if where I work looks the same whether I’m in Healthcare, or Technology, or aerospace, or web design, or selling eggs — then just what is it that I’m describing when I talk about my work culture?
Let’s really make the question work for its money — as professionals, where our choice of workplace is an extraordinarily important decision, what are we looking for now that cubicles, open floor plans, “collab spaces,” and other last-century abominations of homo industrius are gone?
Think of what a company is — an extension of the will of people (more on this in another post) whose purpose is declared openly. Companies blast their mission and vision statements against stock nature photography and it’s a set piece, something to put on a plaque in the hallway and interview in front of when we open our new HQ in Florida for tax purposes.
But those statements are fundamental to the entire idea of a firm; they say “this is the impact we want to have on the world, and others who want to make the same impact are invited to participate in our mission.” They’re a call to action and united purpose, and they invite the like-minded to amplify the impact they can make on the world by contributing to a larger force of will than that of a single individual.
And in a world where who we are as a company is more clearly stated in plain English than in the 20-minute snippets of interpersonal conversation that constitute the new normal work day, we just might see the corporation actually become an instrument of volitional change in the world that operates by focusing, coordinating, and magnifying the efforts of individuals toward meaningful purpose.
