Reflections

Broken Windows at Work?

• By fannieb
• October 17, 2014
• No Comments

Is the broken window theory in effect at my workplace? Yesterday a purse went missing. A few weeks ago lunches were being stolen out of the refrigerator. And in September someone took meals from the cafeteria without paying for them. What will be next?

Over the last two months I’ve noticed a dinginess in our building. The bathrooms aren’t cleaned as thoroughly as they used to be. People spill food and drink on the carpeting and don’t even attempt to clean it up or call for the janitor to assist. In an effort to save money the carpets are vacuumed only once a week and that’s just vacuuming so the stains linger. It’s beginning to remind me of when I worked for a fairly large mortgage company. There, the concrete steps leading to the parking lot began to crumble. Management ignored them for over two years until a woman twisted her ankle when her heal caught a crack the wrong way. Only then did facilities put up yellow tape (like police do to cordon off crime scenes) in order to block access.

I was unhappy there because of the unkempt environment and the lack of care people showed. The same is true at my current job. Many people don’t seem to care about their own appearance let alone the appearance or cleanliness of their work environment.

Is this neglect causing the recent untoward behavior? Or is it a matter of lax hiring practices that is allowing riffraff to be hired – people who don’t care to begin with. It’s the chicken or the egg conundrum. So I’m not sure which one is the cause. But what I do know is it is not an environment that uplifts and stirs people to want more, be more, or achieve more. This type of environment sets the stage for work to be an unhappy grind.

Does a company’s culture reflect the self-esteem or lack thereof of its leaders? If leaders don’t demand clean environments, then there won’t be clean environments. In turn employees will feel less positive about themselves and morale decreases. Bottom line – an unaesthetic work environment is bad for business.

Photo Credit:  Karan Jain