95% of Companies Just Don’t get It
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What don’t they get?
They don’t understand that they need to look after and nurture their employees and stop treating them like idiots with zero intelligence. I’ve talked about this before and it is one of the areas of business that really interests me.
Jason Fried, from 37signals has been featured recently over on AZcentral.com and he talked about how employees should be treated:
In order to appeal to us, employers need to rethink their rules a bit. Forget rigid 40-hour workweeks. Forget traditional company hierarchy…
One company that has led the charge in shifting the work-life paradigm, especially when it comes to employee relations, is 37signals. Headquartered in Chicago, it’s a multi-million dollar organization deeply committed to maintaining a work-life balance for its employees.
President Jason Fried says today’s employers present the biggest roadblock. “Simply put, employees are treated like children. They are not allowed to think for themselves, and there are too many layers of approval, just too much insulation that prevents anyone from doing anything. The traditional workplace is broken, and until someone realizes that, there’s always going to be conflict.”
This suffocation by protocol is dead on and will never allow an employee to “go beyond” or achieve something extra for the company. This is a critical link that most organizations continually fail to acknowledge. They are too focused on ensuring employees do no wrong that they actually prevent them from achieving anything beyond status quo.
Does your company do this? Or are you in the 95% (or higher) who don’t?
The best work places in the world?
I am a firm believer that you work better when you are in a nice environment.
This is one area where most companies have NOT a CLUE. They don’t quite grasp that the work place is where their people, their important people, spend a large amount of their waking time. Where they are paid to work and be productive. Where they interact and engage with fellow colleagues and of course customers.
Now wouldn’t it be a radical, an incredible concept to actually make that workplace a cool place to be? A comfortable place to be? An inspiring place to be?
Damn, it’s not rocket science is it.
One niche of companies however, do seem to understand the importance of a decent workplace, and they are agencies. thisain’tnodisco is a superb site which showcases some of the finest, coolest, hottest agency workplaces from around the world.
And I am officially in awe of some of these….
Just check that out - now that is an office space. Unfortunately my ‘command centre’ as it is affectionately called is not quite up there yet or ready to be submitted to thisain’tnodisco. But I am planning some improvements. I need better organisation and I really need a better desk!
Current situation:
- rectangular desk which does not make use of small office space
- no shelves
- duff printer
- clutter on small bookshelf
- one low power desk light
Aiming for:
- L-shaped desk from Ikea to make use of space
- Better lighting
- 2/3 shelves
- Box files for paperwork
- Decent printer
- Small cupboard to store clutter
I think this will go a long way to being more comfortable where I work, and with the winter approaching, working in the kitchen with the doors open is not going to be feasible 
