Gustavo Razzetti, hired by companies to improve their work cultures, has noticed a change since the pandemic began last year: more political fighting, more managers losing control of their employees, a strange mix of hyper-involvement and lack of empathy.
“Employees turn off their cameras, hide behind avatars and become disrespectful,” he said. Razzetti said, whose consultation is called Fearless Culture. “They are aggressive among themselves.”
Office conversations at some companies are starting to look as ominous as conversations on the internet. This is because office call is now internet call. Many companies have been working online for almost a year, with plans to continue until 2021. And just as people are brave behind keyboards on Twitter, they are brave behind keyboards on work platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack – with all the good and all bad, but with much more legal liability.
Work culture experts say there are steps companies can take before lawyers get involved. These include: watching large groups of complaints, listening to complaints, reminding employees that they have jobs and not chatting with friends, and being aware that a move to a virtual workforce can create new problems such as age discrimination expose.
At many U.S. companies, this is the first time that colleagues have had to work and socialize almost entirely online. There is likely to be no return: nearly half of the U.S. workforce works full-time from home, according to Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom. And 67 percent of businesses expect to work permanently or long-term, according to a study by S&P Global, which provides financial analysis.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was patting themselves on the back, like, ‘Oh, look, productivity has not dropped. We switched to digital. We did things we wanted to do – streamline processes, move things online, decentralize decision making. “But they have forgotten culture,” said Jennifer Howard-Grenville, a professor of organizational studies at the University of Cambridge. “Now the reality of it has hit.”
When message boards, chat rooms and Facebook become tools, humor appears out of color. Aggressive political discussions that would not take place between hockey teams now look good. The hierarchy of physical space disappears when everyone is a username: confronting senior management does not have to be a walk and a knock at the door, and confronting colleagues does not have to be next to them for the rest of the day. to sit.
“I’ve seen bullying appear via text message on various types of internal instant messaging platforms, and we’re seeing an increase in the kind of complaints that come down on us,” said John Marshall, a labor and civil rights lawyer in Columbus, Ohio. Harassment of colleagues on internal messaging platforms is not new, he added, but now there is more of it.
These new work tools are designed to look and feel like message boards and social media. Workers notice this and adopt similar behaviors, researchers say. The performative nature of Slack, where colleagues spark discussions in large chat rooms by adding emojis, for example, means that madness grows and is hard to contain once it starts.
“Employees ask themselves, ‘Well, what do I know that is similar to Slack?’ ‘, Said Mark D. Agars, a professor at California State University who studies organizational psychology. “It’s a Reddit board. We therefore use the norms. And those norms are very different from professional norms. ”
Some employers have responded strictly to political online chats. The CEO of the cryptocurrency company Coinbase – whose workers have complained about divergent compensation for women and minorities – recently told employees to stay at work or get another job due to online problems. Some of them took him on offer.
But work culture experts say there is a middle ground. So money saved in office space is spent on hiring corporate therapists like Mr. Razzetti.
He has a protocol for emergency workflow situations. First, he shuts down the problematic Slack channel. Then he breaks the team for an intervention. Colleagues are asked to reflect alone. They can then meet one by one with another colleague to share their feelings, then in groups of four. Eventually, those small groups can begin to integrate back into a fresh Slack channel.
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Some of the professors and consultants recommend simple solutions: take turns to speak or post in meetings, take quiet time to read something together during a video meeting before discussing, and give workers 90 seconds to risk their politics before starting a politically free working day.
“We have people fighting online like teenagers at work,” he said. Razzetti said. “This can be a very serious matter.” The recommendation of professionals is therefore to treat us all as if we are teenagers who have fought online.
As with anything that involves on-the-job communication – especially workplace conversations in text form – there are legal responsibilities. There is a big legal difference between a troll with an opinion who is an internet stranger and a troll with an opinion that can contribute to your performance appraisal. People can sue if they believe they are being harassed.
Anyone with a view to avoiding legal liability knows: Text is dangerous. The fact that workplace discussions are now taking place in online chats is a nightmare for legal teams.
“You have to be sure that you do not write and document anything that will offend people,” said Leslie Caputo. His title is human scientist at Humu, which makes software for the culture of workplaces. “For the millennials, the first century to grow up with IM, we are so used to having predominant interactions in this way, it can be hard to remember that it is a workplace with different rules.”
Lawyers are starting to see more complaints. Some of the risks involve how comfortable people interact on the platforms, which are built to encourage comfortable interaction.
“We see more flawed behavior in general and treat co-workers as if they were your online friends,” said Danielle E. Sweets, a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer.
But friendly mockery for some can be evidence of litigation against others.
“If someone now experiences a hostile work environment, it will be written off,” said Christina Cheung, a partner with Allred, Morocco & Goldberg, which focuses on harassment cases.
An employment discrimination law firm recently published this blog post with its skills: ‘If you had discrimination or harassment during a virtual meeting, do not wait … contact an experienced New Jersey workplace discrimination lawyer today to discuss your legal options, ”wrote Phillips & Associates.
Much has been written about the gender divide in working from home, how mothers put an excessive amount of homeschooling work on their lap. But working from home makes another gap stronger: the gender gap. Older employees often feel less comfortable with the kind of constant digital chats that are normal for younger workers.
‘For them, it feels so strong not to be in a room with people. “They may not be that quick to jump on Slack,” she said. Caputo of Humu said. “How will this affect the performance appraisal? There may be severe feelings of old age. ”
An example: A worker struggles to navigate new software or stays inadvertently muted, and the boss makes a joke.
There are, of course, benefits to these changes. Ms Caputo had contact with colleagues in new ways. Her daughter has severe food allergies, and now there is a Humu chat room for people dealing with the same problems. A member of senior leadership joined. They bind everyone.
The norms of internet conversations are based on a unique blend of anonymity, lack of self-awareness, a sense of protection and humor. Behind an avatar and a username we can be blunt or cruel, indifferent, brave and charming. Online communication imparts a sense of distance and security and is easy to overlook due to virtual workplace culture. It also empowers employees who may not be so willing to speak in physical circumstances.
Sammy Courtright, co-founder and trademark officer of Ten Spot, a company that builds tools for healthy workplace engagement, now compares workplace behavior to online dating. Meeting someone at a bar and striking up a conversation requires a degree of empathy and nuance that is not always necessary when meeting someone on Tinder.
“It’s empowered in certain ways – people can say what they want to say,” Courtright said. ‘Maybe their persona is more directly online. They can be who they want to be. ”