According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the word “Absurdity” means stupid or unreasonable and according to Carys Chan, Assoc. Professor at RMIT University, workplaces often suffer from absurdity.
Could It Apply To Your Business?
Chan offers some examples of workplace absurdity which include:
– Firing or suing a whistle-blower employee while retaining the perpetrator
– Using generic and subjective evaluation tools to assess employee performance
– Setting data-driven performance goals that don’t reflect true improvement but instead give the perception entire teams are pulling together to achieve a common goal
Do Any Of These Sound Familiar In Your Workplace?
The Effects Of Workplace Absurdity:
While it may be tempting to laugh at some of Chan’s examples, the problem is, they are commonplace. Worse still, if workplace absurdity is ignored, it can begin to cause problems which affect staff morale, retention and organisational profitability.
Chan believes workplace absurdity is common in workplaces that have a culture of avoiding confrontation. That includes a dedicated avoidance of difficult conversations with staff and/or an inability by management to accept staff feedback.
By ignoring workplace absurdity, Chan sites the following dangers for managers and business owners:
1. Evaluating performance based on subjectivity rather than the real level of effort and the true potential of an employee
2. A reluctance to change well-established (and possibly outdated) processes or beliefs
3. The inability of managers to listen and adopt employee suggestions which could improve and streamline operations
4. A lack of trust between employees and their managers so problems or ideas on how to improve operations are never put forward
How To Identify Absurdity In The Workplace?
There are a number of ways to identify and remove absurdity from any workplace. They include:
1. Establishing a series of informal feedback systems (such as suggestion boxes, brainstorming meetings and 360° performance reviews) to provide safe environments for frank discussions and idea sharing to improve policies and processes
2. Management training on how to react and evaluate feedback from subordinates
3. Coaching for managers on how to give constructive feedback to staff and how to approach difficult conversations
What To Do When Absurdity Strikes?
Many of our clients rely on us to help them get out of tricky situations and we do this in a variety of ways.
If you haven’t spoken to the End2End team about your staff management issues, get in touch now to discover how we may be able to help you. Also, get in touch if you currently have a staff situation that is proving difficult to manage.
Whatever your people management issues and absurdities, End2End Business Solutions are here to help so call us on 02 8977 4002.