The problem

The most poisonous element of a company is the sort of remarks that some employees make about others “as a joke”. I never really paid attention to it but some people, often those who seem the least comfortable, enjoy occasional jibes on their coworkers with a forced smile, as if they were seeking attention.

• Scenario 1: I’m reading a newspaper article at work. They walk behind me, eye my screen and go “oh, working hard over here!”
• Scenario 2: Someone decides to go play ping pong, asks others and some reply “I actually have work to do, unlike you!”

So at first I found those small comments rather funny, some sympathetic pokes. And surely, it is sometimes all they are when certain people make them. However, others repetitively make use of those comments, which ultimately darken the general mood of the team (or well, at least mine).

The digression

I think that a clear predictor of employees productivity is the health of their team synergy. It is complicated to achieve, especially within international teams of employees that each have a very different background and struggle to completely understand each others’ humors. Everyone wants to be like Google and Facebook, to emulate those office evironments to empower employees and boost their productivity. But you cannot simply work on the infrastructure aspect of those things. I think managerial staff should force employees to do other things than their daily tasks at work. For some cultures, this is a taboo and those who were educated in more conservative settings even perceive a lack of discipline or work ethics in those who allow themselves entertainment during work.

But have a look at the most progressive social experiments taking place in countries like Sweden, where the official work day will be limited to 6 hours instead of 8. I am personally a strong believer that the choice should be given to all employees to boost productivity.

The conclusion

Employees should always be encouraged to focus some of their energy to activities that are completely unrelated to their daily tasks and routines. This is not only benefitial at a personal level, it will surely reward the company on the long term in the sense that broadening one’s horizon by reading an article, or even playing a sport refreshes cognitive abilities, enabling certain neural connections to be made that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise and consequently solving problems faster.