May 26th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
Perhaps these signs are funny. Perhaps they are sad. Perhaps they are funny-sad. (Or sad-funny.) Whatever they are, they reveal a lot about what we believe about work. A free copy of Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It to the person who best translates the hidden meanings.
Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It explores why most workplaces are so dysfunctional, and offers a dramatic new way to stop the toxic behaviors and beliefs that keep us from reaching our potential. Filled with passion and common sense, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It will change the way you think about your job, your company, and your quality of life.
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The first sign explains that the employees of an unidentified department do not need a physical fitness program because they already have access to six different activities during the course of their work-hours. I am not sure that these excercices offers enough variety to be considered a complete health program, most of them being either too abstract (dodging responsibility) or too violent (knifing friends in the back).
The second sign explains that if you do a good job in an unidentified place, no one will notice that you have a warm feeling as long as you don’t say “Hey people, I have a warm feeling of doing a good job here”. It also says that if you wet your pant in a dark suit in an unidentified place, no one will notice that you have a warm feeling as long as you don’t say “Hey people, I have a warm feeling of wetting my pants”.
The third one explains that in a workplace, you have people of different conditions. To prove that, the signs uses the example of an unidentified person without legs that have all of his toes attached to his bottom. If you are not careful enough, you could walk near to him and step on the toes that are attached to his bottom. If you do, you will have to kiss his butt in a maternal way to comfort him.
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Sorry, I couldn’t resist to explain them in a “Marmaduke explained” way (http://marmadukeexplained.blogspot.com/). By the way, I really like your blog and I can’t wait to read your book (even if I don’t win it).
The ‘hidden’ meaning is pretty much the same behind each sign: “Maybe if we joke enough about these serious problems, we will forget they exist or convince ourselves they are no big deal.” Ick.
The hidden message is there is no respect for the job being done or the people doing it.
As a manager I would say it is time for some recognition of results and work on getting rid of the poisonous workplace attitudes that are going on there.
The employees of this company are:
(1) Klingons.
(2) Into watersports.
(3) Contortionists.
Q: What do they have in common?
A: They all need Cali & Jody to come over and detoxify their sludge!
Unfortunately, these signs are very accurate. If the signs were not true, most people would respond, “What are they talking about, worklife is absolutely wonderful!” But these signs make us laugh because they accurately explain our existence in corporate America. We can laugh or we can cry about our worklife. I say we laugh - then do something about it.
These posters endorse conformity to a status quo of Mediocrity. The basic premise of all three is, “Do not make (me/ everyone else) look bad”. The last poster especially, in the guise of promoting politeness and courtesy, in actuality insinuates that out-performing or not conforming to “the way things are done around here” can be just cause for revenge.
Further, these posters exploit the lack of recognition that should be granted for producing results. They foster a mentality of cynicism and promote an “Us versus Them” attitude, coyly stating that regardless of how well you perform, “no one else will notice”. (But then, why would anyone notice if the favorite activities of subordinates include “running down the boss”, “dodging responsibility”, and “pushing their luck”)?
Despite being sometimes humorous, these types of posters/ sayings/ quotes, etc. are perpetuated, frankly, by those who would fear things like a “Results-Only Work Environment”. Who could blame them? It would be terrifying for someone whose apparent success has come by “putting in the time” and getting to know “the right people”, to have a truth uncovered—a truth about themselves they may not have even been present to.
In a ROWE, lack of ability to produce results is clearly and obviously detectable. What CEO with a sixth-grade reading level (I have met many) would not fear that? Indeed, the cynicism of these posters is the cynic’s natural defense to keep their (glaring) secret covered… even to themselves.
As for the third sign:
At IBM, we say “Anybody could be your next manager”, so this serves as a caution not to treat anyone you work with disrespectfully, and not to burn bridges, as this could affect your career on the next restructuring/re-organization.
–Tony
You are all reading into it too deeply. The hidden meaning is simple, work sucks, go home, give up, stop trying.
Interesting, well worth reading.