'Everything not forbidden is compulsory'
I was not previously aware of the expression 'al desko' - is this because I am now out of the workplace, or because somebody made it up yesterday morning?
Anyway, as a well-known misanthrope, I feel I would run like hell did I find myself in this workplace culture - 'his team all have lunch - and afternoon ice-cream breaks - together at the cafe next door'. Once a week, maybe okay, voluntary pm teabreak, I'd be cool with that, but this is beginning to sound like Compulsory Bonding Fun. [I]t’s enjoyable, says PR William Matthews. “Breaking bread with your colleagues every day is far better for team spirit than the dreaded once-in-a-blue-moon ‘organised fun’ that so many companies go in for. People are social beings and eating together is a sort of primeval thing.” He has fond memories of the boss who made everyone down tools for a “proper seated lunch with proper crockery and cutlery, so everyone could clear their heads and enjoy the food”.
I was therefore massively relieved to read this somewhat counter-opinion: Bruce Daisley, European vice-president at Twitter and author of The Joy of Work, has a warning for anyone tempted by a ban [on people lunching at their desks]. “For me, this is a bit like organisations that ban you from accessing email outside work hours. The intentions are good but nannying people never has the outcome that you want. You’re turning people into infants, taking away their right to self-determination.
“If people sit down to lunch together,” he adds, “they do tend to collaborate better - unless you force them to do it, in which case all that benefit tends to go. You’ve just got to let people do what they want. If you have no agency, you feel unhappy, you feel demotivated, you feel estranged from your job.”
Emphasis mine.
I also think of all the food-related problems in work situations that get ventilated at Ask a Manager: this let's all bond over breaking bread sounds full of potential hazards in the same way that assumption about bonding over pints in the pub does. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2869139.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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