The office environment has a considerable impact on the quality of work and the happiness of the employees. The work culture, the look and design of the workplace, and the leadership influence the employees and their productivity in a number of ways. If you have a good office environment that encourages growth and creativity, you can be sure that your employees will be happy and productive.
However, if you have a bad office environment, regardless of the salary incentive, you’ll have a high employee turnover and very unhappy teams. So, how do you recognize if your office environment is bad or not? Here are some of the worst office environments. If you realize that your company has them, it’s time to change things.
1. The Traditional Environment
This is the regular 9-5 job that has a very rigid structure and a very clear line between boss and employee. You have strict rules, stricter dress-codes, low individual contribution, and little to no creativity. This isn’t a fun environment to be in. People are stifled and their productivity sinks on a daily basis. They’re not excited about their job and eventually leave for greener pastures. Modern employees require some flexibility and freedom to help them be more encouraged to come in to work and work happily.
2. The Cubicle Nightmare
Cubicles have long been associated with offices, but very few realize just how oppressive the atmosphere can be. Employees are essentially isolated from one another and forced to work without interaction. When they’re not doing anything, they sit inside the bland grey cubicle, unable to freely interact with others. When you do this, you kill teamwork and building employee relationships. A company can’t function or flourish in this environment because it can have an impact on employee relationships and creativity.
3. Succeed or Fail Environment
This environment can be very crippling and puts insane amounts of pressure on the employees. In such offices, employees either succeed in a task or fail completely. There’s no middle ground. Failure is treated with disdain and discouraged. Employers and employees in such environments don’t have a positive attitude towards failure and don’t view it as a learning opportunity.
This can stifle growth and cause the employees to become resentful. After all, if you expect perfection from human beings, you’re doomed to disappointment. Errors and mistakes happen and failure is part of life. You need to accept that and incorporate that acceptance in your work environment as well.
4. The Strictly Hierarchical Environment
This environment ignores individual skills and accomplishments and tries to preserve status quo. Here the boss can never be wrong, orders from superiors can’t be questioned, and if you’re low on the totem pole, you have no voice. This environment is a complete antithesis of the modern work environment where the lines between employers and employees are slightly blurred and hierarchy only emerges on project where structure is required.
This environment is not good for productivity. It also stifles creativity and has a high employee turnover.
