Misjudging Moods: The Connection Between Brexit and Workplace Culture

The implications of the Brexit vote are far reaching and momentous; the economic and political effects are only just now being felt, but I’m more interested in the social aspect of the vote from the perspective of workplace culture.

In my experience, many workplaces are home to a total disconnect between upper management and general employees. Whether it’s values, goals, or general emotions about work, this disconnect can lead to a multitude of different conditions that create toxic workplace cultures, like a lack of trust, pervasive bullying and low productivity. In short, when managers completely fail to understand the points of view of their employees, workplace culture tends to go downhill.

Enter the Brexit vote – from an outsider’s perspective, it appears as though the political elites in the UK wholly misunderstood the emotions and plights of the average people. This disconnect allowed many UK voters to be swayed by general language, biases and misinformation in the media that took advantage of their frustrations. The political establishment misread the mood of the public, leading to a monumental (and potentially catastrophic) decision that is being felt the world over.

This is why emotional intelligence is so essential – both from a workplace culture perspective and a political perspective in terms of the Brexit vote. Managers should be aware of their employees’ feelings to avoid poisonous workplace cultures; similarly, the establishment of the political landscape need to be aware of the feelings of their constituents in order to effectively lead them. Understanding why people feel the way they do is the best way to diagnose issues and work together to solve them. A lack of understanding leads people to target issues that cloud how they’re really feeling – which is what appears to have happened in terms of the Brexit, which may not hold the solutions to the many real concerns UK citizens have about economic instability. In much the same way as employers use mass layoffs as a first rather than last resort, the British people seem to have taken the Brexit option as a first rather than last resort – and both have happened as the result of a fundamental disconnect between emotion and action.

While UK and EU citizens will undoubtedly continue to have mixed feelings on the Brexit vote, the fact that the top Google search in the UK was “What is the EU?” goes to show how essential communication and awareness are. Hopefully, this example will serve as a powerful lesson for the USA come November.

Image Credit: Al Jazeera

Business Ethics Up for Debate

This is the most baffling article I’ve read recently. In it, Prof. Deidre McCloskey suggests that, despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, business ethics are just fine, possibly better than they’ve ever been. Never mind the sorts of stories we see every day, about layoffs, visa abuses, product safety blunders, and disregard of workplace culture – everything is supposedly going well. I obviously disagree, and I highly recommend reading the rebuttal letter to the editor by Prof. Gary Mongiovi if you can – it perfectly qualifies the inaccuracies in this article, which I’m perplexed that the Financial Times even published. As Mongiovi puts it, “Prof. McCloskey’s complacency is recklessly optimistic." Read the full article in the Financial Times, and check out the linked letter to the editor.

Visa Abuses Mean Layoffs for Domestic Workers

H-1B visas are a great idea in theory. The notion of bringing the world’s best and brightest to work for your company is appealing, but many corporations have been abusing these visas to bring in low-cost alternatives to their existing employees. To add insult to injury, according to this article, “in many cases, laid off American workers have been required to train their lower-paid replacements.” To take it one step further, many laid off workers signed agreements that made it impossible to criticize their former employers in order to receive severance pay – making it impossible for many of the victims of this situation to be heard publicly. No wonder that, according to Gallup Polling, 70% of American workers are unengaged at work. You can read more on this at The New York Times.

Photo: Workers from Abbott Laboratories gathered after a series of layoffs at their company; Joshua Lott for NYT.

The Worst Kind of Workplace Culture

This is a perfect example of a horribly toxic work environment. It seems the Oakland Police Dept. isn’t only mired by bigoted racism, as was found in a Stanford study referenced in this article. The fact that an alleged 28 police officers in the area had relations with an underage prostitute, leading to the resignation of three police chiefs in 10 days, is evocative of one of the worst varieties of workplace poisonousness. How many other officers knew of this behavior, and were compelled to stay silent? How many participated in this behavior because they were compelled to? Finally, how many upper level officers looked the other way? Beyond a cultural transformation, everyone in a supervisory level who was aware (or should have been aware) needs to be fired. You can read more about this horrible situation at NPR.

Photo: Former Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent, who was the first chief to resign over the accusations. Josh Edelson for Getty Images via NPR.

Overcoming Ageism in the Workplace

As I’ve written about before, oftentimes, workplace bullying can disproportionately affect certain groups like older employees. Businesses seeking to cut costs by not paying older employees will sometimes put them in a position where their only option is to quit. I touch on this briefly in this AARP article, where I and a few other workplace culture specialists discuss strategies to stand up to workplace bullying. Shamefully, ageism is widespread, and quite often, it’s difficult to find help in courts. Check out the piece at AARP.com.

Communication is Key for Workplace Culture

“At its core, culture is about the humanization of a business.” I love this sentiment. Communication truly is key to creating a positive, psychologically safe workplace culture, more than trendy perks like free lunch or massages. For managers and employees alike, being mindful of communication is the best way to support the productivity of others while simultaneously establishing an environment built around openness and clarity. Face-to-face discussions about business functions are fundamental to team building and growth. I agree with Ramakrishnan’s contention that video meetings are essential for remote employees to feel a sense of culture, but the importance of actually speaking to coworkers is just as essential in the office as it is out of it. You can read Ramakrishnan's full piece on communication in the workplace at The Huffington Post. 

Using the Workplace to Prevent Mass Violence

The recent events in Orlando are tragic, unprecedented, and were entirely preventable. I’ll be writing more on this soon, but I believe that workplace indicators could have kept Omar Mateen from following the path of violence he chose. It’s been a hard day for both the LGBT and Muslim communities, in addition to the USA at large, but we all have to believe in the ability of compassion to overcome hate. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who died. I hope the national conversation turns away from marginalization, blame and politics, and begins to focus more on the preventative mental health perspective that could have stopped Mateen in his tracks. You can read more about Mateen in the workplace in this Daily Beast piece.

Photo: Hilary Swift for NYT

Putting Yourself Before Your Country

People may disagree with Leonard Pitts Jr.’s assessment of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decisions regarding Donald Trump. However, I agree completely with him – those who endorse Trump are doing so out of self-interest or bitter partisanship rather than putting their country first. The comparison of Paul Ryan and Franz Von Papen, who was partially responsible for the rise of Hitler for his own political expedience, is completely fair. A few Republicans, like Mitt Romney for example, should be commended for standing up to Trump and the rest of their party for refusing to endorse a dangerous, racist and fundamentally flawed candidate. The GOP loses big time whether or not Trump wins or loses the election – they’ve exposed an immensely problematic underbelly to their values. America needs a party of common-sense conservatism if it wants to continue having a healthy two-party system. The way current Republicans are tepidly, almost shamefully, endorsing Trump is in and of itself shameful. You can read Pitts's piece at The Miami Herald.

A Step Towards More Comprehensive Employee Evaluation

It’s certainly a good thought to evaluate employees with words rather than numbers. However, these changes by Morgan Stanley, while encouraging, may not be enough to truly give employees a sense of substantive feedback at work. While employees will get a five-adjective list of descriptors of their work performance, the retention of 360 reviews is troubling. Even though they’re a norm in many industries, and while some companies are able to make them work, they’re highly susceptible to bullying. Change is slow, especially in some large corporations, but when it comes to employee evaluation, more comprehensive systems need to be in place that take into account workplace culture and employee productivity. You can read more at The New York Times.

Image: Morgan Stanley's HQ in NYC; Mario Tama/Getty Images via NYT

Hiring "Duds" In the US Economy

Many people are focusing on this month’s dismal hiring report from the US Department of Labor in terms of its effect on the Fed and short-term interest rates. It’s true that the short-term interest rate debate will be important to the US economy, but I see the “unqualified dud of a jobs report” through the lens of workplace culture. Why are so few workers being hired? It’s not that people aren’t looking for jobs; rather, the answer may lie in overarching attitudes about workplace culture. People have less trust in the job market, meaning they’re more likely to stay in the job they’re in; perhaps younger employees are finding it difficult to secure employment in industries used to a revolving door approach in millennial workers. You can read more at the Wall Street Journal.