We become immune to our own smells. It is possible
that your perfume is too strong or your body has
built up a resistance to your favorite deodorant.....
Building and maintaining
strong business relationships is the key to success.
While keys are designed to unlock doors, in the
modern workplace, doors are about as scarce as
good manners. It is estimated that over 40 million
North Americans work in open environments. That
is, of course, a nice way of saying cubicles.
And while, cubicles may not have doors, they can
act as barriers to strong working relationships.
Corporations have embraced cubicles because saving
space saves money. And in these times of constant
restructuring, it is also useful to have workspaces
that are easy, fast and relatively inexpensive
to reconfigure. This also comes in handy when
projects and teams are fluid. Another touted benefit
of cubicles is the ease of collaboration between
colleagues, but where there is ease of collaboration
it is also easy to have confrontation and complaints.
This anger and grumbling is primarily a result
of the more frequent interruptions and lack of
privacy that go with the open territory. Interruptions
are not only caused by a co-worker speaking directly
to you, they can also be a result of visual or
auditory distractions. Even a noxious smell, such
as burnt popcorn wafting from your neighbors cubicle
can cause you to look up and even grab a handful.
Interruptions, aside from being an annoyance,
also reduce productivity. A study conducted by
Basex determined that office distractions take
up 2.1 hours of the average day – 28% - with workers
taking an average of five minutes to recover from
each interruption and return to their original
tasks
When workers are out in the open, their personal
habits and relationships are on display as well.
This lack of privacy can feel invasive and offensive.
It is true that the close quarters of office cubicles
in companies are a breeding ground for hot tempers,
resentments and damaged relations. It is also
true that most of our complaints about our co-workers
are valid and should not be ignored. The challenge
is to devise and employ strategies to create goodwill
in the office so that minor annoyances do not
explode into a toxic work environment that no
one will benefit from.
While it may seem obvious that extending cubicle
courtesies will go a long way to create goodwill
in the office, little is written about it. A quick
Google search yielded 247,000 results for cubicle
anger 180,000 results for cubicle complaints and
a mere 894 results for cubicle courtesies.
Lets face it, we cube dwellers are all in this
together. Follow these fundamental cubicle courtesies
and your work environment will be much more enjoyable
and productive for everyone. Lead by example and
thoughtfully and sensitively speak up when others
are discourteous to you.
