Far from advocating drinking in the middle of any day for everyone, still, there I was, downing my green beer with Personal Safety Nets' colleagues, over at Elliott Bay Brewery and thorough enjoying the camaraderie that this way of celebrating St. Paddy's day welcomed. We'll still get our work done - notice, I'm addressing adding this blog post now - and perhaps even better than we'd have done had we kept our noses to the grindstone longer and harder.
Earlier today, on KUOW (94.9 in Seattle), the conversation had to do with what kinds of flexibility were flexible in various sorts of workplaces. It's often expected that in white collar jobs, while work availability may be expected to be close to 24/7, flexibility is also present. In many other fields, food service and hospital work among others, it is often the truth that the schedule is the schedule, and that overtime may be mandatory and quixotic.
But, the speaker was explaining, there are many things that managers CAN actually do to make even the most apparently rigid schedules manageable from an employee schedule, without compromising productivity in a negative way. The simplest are to say hello to employees as they arrive, to speak of some personal trivia from time to time and allow some time for listening. The point here is that the workplace is human too ... and the whole person holds value for the employer.
Is this last point true in your office? Do you have time for a bit of the personal? Do you employees see the employer and manager as holding a corner or their Personal Safety Nets®? Do managers and employers see that employees and suppliers, by doing their work, hold up a corner of the workplace? Think a bit about this, maybe, this St. Patrick's Day and consider whether, be it today for green beer, or another day for granting a bit of flexible time for a family need, or a third for staying late for a crucial project, there is latitude for at least some give and take, for appreciation along with solid effort. Enjoy the journey ---