February 1, 2008
Banter Can Be Good as Long as It’s Limited
By Bernice Hurst, Managing Director, Fine Food Network
Surfing and social networking during work hours have become bugbears of late but one dilemma that has always existed is the amount of casual chat that is acceptable. MSNBC recently used the forthcoming Super Bowl as a kick-off point for a piece about when, where, why and how the line should be drawn between work and conversation.
While acknowledging that a friendly atmosphere, where employees feel comfortable talking to one another, can increase productivity, the piece quoted several bosses who pointed out that it was a privilege which shouldn’t be abused. Marty Kotis, CEO of Kotis Properties Inc., a Greensboro, N.C., commercial real estate development firm, observed, “I want people to enjoy coming to the office and working. I want them to get things done, and I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive.”
Jonathan Segal of Philadelphia-based legal firm Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen LLP, pointed out the possibility that restrictions on conversation could result in an unpleasant atmosphere. “You don’t want to have an inhuman workplace,” he is quoted as saying.
Advice in the article on how to achieve the right balance came from Bob Burbidge, founder of Genesis Consolidated Services Inc., a Burlington, Mass.-based provider of human resources outsourcing. His suggestion was to use either staff meetings or e-mails to discuss the line and ensure that no one was either allowed to go too far or was embarrassed if asked to work more and talk less.
“You just have to kind of raise the level of awareness a bit, and try to keep it so we can respect each other’s time,” Mr. Burbidge said, adding that he has regular weekly sessions so that work can be done and rewarded with play, bringing different departments together.
One final word of warning concerned subject matter. Issues that can inflame tempers, particularly religion and politics, should be discouraged, the piece concluded. Or, as Mr. Kotis said, “If it’s going to lead to hard feelings, I think it’s going to be an inappropriate topic, no matter what it is.”
Discussion Questions: Where and how do you draw the line when employees chat while they work? Should there be different rules for customer-facing and office staff? How can you diplomatically establish what is acceptable?
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There is something terribly wrong here. Our national obsession with productivity (which seemed to start back in the ’80s when the Japanese were cleaning our clocks) is just plain wrong.
– Has our “productivity” helped keep our currency valuable?
– Do we really believe that our “productivity” makes our economy strong?
– Has the EU’s different attitude about productivity hurt their economies?
Now we’re actually contemplating that people “chat too much” at work? American culture is growing more and more isolated. Social networks are an attempt to re-kindle some level of interaction with others. Whether online interaction is better than direct human interaction is debatable. The need for conversation, community and dare I say fun is not.
We are barking up the wrong tree…way too loudly in my opinion.
The way back to being “number one” is not through more restrictions. It’s through encouraging creativity, interaction and innovation. That’s how you drive loyalty too.
It seems pretty straightforward to me.
In terms of where to draw the line when employees chat while they work? The best approach is to draw no lines. The better approach is to make certain that every employee has the right amount of work to do with the right deadlines and expectations, and then in most cases, the issue takes care of itself.
Friendly banter between colleagues in a retail establishment with customers present and waiting seems to be a growing problem, but quite different than the often tension reducing light conversation among co-workers conducted over the cubicles or at the office coffee bar (assuming that the topics stay appropriate).
I am sure most employers would say that “outward facing” work time spent surfing the net and passing emails by their workers is over all a much greater threat to productivity than chit chat.
If people are going to spend 2 hours online discussing last night’s installment of American Idol, then it’s inappropriate if not a downright theft of time.
I’m not a huge fan of social networking sites anyway. I don’t think they connect people, I think they cause a disconnect in today’s society, by eliminating live conversation in favor of anonymous comment. But I’m an old fart and my opinion doesn’t count, anyway.
However, there is value in networking sites like RetailWire or anything that increases knowledge or offers intelligent perspective on issues.
This whole discussion falls into the realm of an article I remember reading in the Harvard Business Review. The article spoke of the “dichotomy of management,” referring to the personal vs business relationships we have with our co-workers. I also recall the great movie about a World War II bomber squadron, “12 O’clock High.”
No one wants to be a “Scrooge” but there has to be some sense of business focus in the office environment. This can come from the top down or it can come from the peers in the office. The challenge is to maintain an open atmosphere where goals are clear, progress is clearly tracked, and problems are quickly surfaced.
In today’s business climate I think the peer approach is most effective. Teams working together quickly realize who is contributing and who needs help (either with their skill level or their attitude). What management has to provide are the tools to deal with the difficult situations. This could mean having the key performance indicators in place that make it clear who is contributing. But the challenge becomes the highly skilled employee who runs at half-speed. They not only affect their own output but also that of the others around them. That is where the peer influence becomes important and the other members of the team need a way to get their partner back on track. This can come in feedback sessions or 360 type review processes.
This response over simplifies the issue, as different cultures will require different answers. Industries (outside retail) that pay high salaries have a right to expect high performance. Retail businesses who deal with many part time employees in short term employment scenarios may have to take a more top down approach. But the fundamentals remain the same: open communication, clear goals, and problem response.
Hire adults, give them latitude, make them responsible for their performance, reward their accomplishments, listen to them, treat them like they’re a valuable contributing partner and with respect and they’ll build your business *for* you. You won’t care how much they talk–you’ll be too busy counting your money.
When it is slow, employees forget they are paid to work, not chat. After NRF, I visited some of the largest brands in retail to see how their panelists words, “We provide exceptional experience” played out. At one store across from Rockefeller Center the cosmetics girl was talking to the other counter girl about her “f-ing” boyfriend. Mind you she was thirtysomething, in one of the most prestigious stores in the world, dressed to the nines and not whispering.
Employees chatter because quite simply, no one is minding the store. People who want to compete know it isn’t the marketing of the brand but the management of it that counts.
Put me in the draw no lines but hire responsible people and keep them busy camp. One of the problems in America today is that the lines that used to separate certain activities have blurred. That’s why people in movies talk out loud like they were home watching television; why–if you listen long enough–you can snag a stranger’s credit card information as they bellow it into their cell phones; and why some employees can’t tell the difference between level of acceptable casual conversation at work and the level you find in a friendly neighborhood bar.
The two top reasons people say they like their jobs are 1) I like my boss, and 2) I have a friend at work. Allowing employees to enjoy their workday and make social connections with their colleagues is important, but obviously you have to meet productivity goals.
When workers have clearly stated goals and their productivity is measured and appropriately rewarded, time wasting is minimized. Watch the folks working on piecework versus the folks paid by the hour. This doesn’t just apply to blue collar jobs. Highly paid executives can be very focused when their compensation is results-based instead of time-based. The banter takes place, but it’s mostly during mealtime and after work.
This is about intention. Good employees are always actively seeking out and doing what’s best for the organization. A good company doesn’t have a banter problem.
The big problem with social networking is time! My wife goes on facebook and I don’t see her for days sometimes. Do we really want staff to be hooked on these sites while they work?
I think banter between staff is great and it can make the most mundane tasks pass by quickly but there has to be limits. And with technology the way it is, cell phones and PDAs need to be controlled as well. All the chains and businesses that I work with have some policy about cell phones on the sales floor and for good reason.
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There is something terribly wrong here. Our national obsession with productivity (which seemed to start back in the ’80s when the Japanese were cleaning our clocks) is just plain wrong.
– Has our “productivity” helped keep our currency valuable?
– Do we really believe that our “productivity” makes our economy strong?
– Has the EU’s different attitude about productivity hurt their economies?
Now we’re actually contemplating that people “chat too much” at work? American culture is growing more and more isolated. Social networks are an attempt to re-kindle some level of interaction with others. Whether online interaction is better than direct human interaction is debatable. The need for conversation, community and dare I say fun is not.
We are barking up the wrong tree…way too loudly in my opinion.
The way back to being “number one” is not through more restrictions. It’s through encouraging creativity, interaction and innovation. That’s how you drive loyalty too.
It seems pretty straightforward to me.
In terms of where to draw the line when employees chat while they work? The best approach is to draw no lines. The better approach is to make certain that every employee has the right amount of work to do with the right deadlines and expectations, and then in most cases, the issue takes care of itself.
Friendly banter between colleagues in a retail establishment with customers present and waiting seems to be a growing problem, but quite different than the often tension reducing light conversation among co-workers conducted over the cubicles or at the office coffee bar (assuming that the topics stay appropriate).
I am sure most employers would say that “outward facing” work time spent surfing the net and passing emails by their workers is over all a much greater threat to productivity than chit chat.
If people are going to spend 2 hours online discussing last night’s installment of American Idol, then it’s inappropriate if not a downright theft of time.
I’m not a huge fan of social networking sites anyway. I don’t think they connect people, I think they cause a disconnect in today’s society, by eliminating live conversation in favor of anonymous comment. But I’m an old fart and my opinion doesn’t count, anyway.
However, there is value in networking sites like RetailWire or anything that increases knowledge or offers intelligent perspective on issues.
This whole discussion falls into the realm of an article I remember reading in the Harvard Business Review. The article spoke of the “dichotomy of management,” referring to the personal vs business relationships we have with our co-workers. I also recall the great movie about a World War II bomber squadron, “12 O’clock High.”
No one wants to be a “Scrooge” but there has to be some sense of business focus in the office environment. This can come from the top down or it can come from the peers in the office. The challenge is to maintain an open atmosphere where goals are clear, progress is clearly tracked, and problems are quickly surfaced.
In today’s business climate I think the peer approach is most effective. Teams working together quickly realize who is contributing and who needs help (either with their skill level or their attitude). What management has to provide are the tools to deal with the difficult situations. This could mean having the key performance indicators in place that make it clear who is contributing. But the challenge becomes the highly skilled employee who runs at half-speed. They not only affect their own output but also that of the others around them. That is where the peer influence becomes important and the other members of the team need a way to get their partner back on track. This can come in feedback sessions or 360 type review processes.
This response over simplifies the issue, as different cultures will require different answers. Industries (outside retail) that pay high salaries have a right to expect high performance. Retail businesses who deal with many part time employees in short term employment scenarios may have to take a more top down approach. But the fundamentals remain the same: open communication, clear goals, and problem response.
Hire adults, give them latitude, make them responsible for their performance, reward their accomplishments, listen to them, treat them like they’re a valuable contributing partner and with respect and they’ll build your business *for* you. You won’t care how much they talk–you’ll be too busy counting your money.
When it is slow, employees forget they are paid to work, not chat. After NRF, I visited some of the largest brands in retail to see how their panelists words, “We provide exceptional experience” played out. At one store across from Rockefeller Center the cosmetics girl was talking to the other counter girl about her “f-ing” boyfriend. Mind you she was thirtysomething, in one of the most prestigious stores in the world, dressed to the nines and not whispering.
Employees chatter because quite simply, no one is minding the store. People who want to compete know it isn’t the marketing of the brand but the management of it that counts.
Put me in the draw no lines but hire responsible people and keep them busy camp. One of the problems in America today is that the lines that used to separate certain activities have blurred. That’s why people in movies talk out loud like they were home watching television; why–if you listen long enough–you can snag a stranger’s credit card information as they bellow it into their cell phones; and why some employees can’t tell the difference between level of acceptable casual conversation at work and the level you find in a friendly neighborhood bar.
The two top reasons people say they like their jobs are 1) I like my boss, and 2) I have a friend at work. Allowing employees to enjoy their workday and make social connections with their colleagues is important, but obviously you have to meet productivity goals.
When workers have clearly stated goals and their productivity is measured and appropriately rewarded, time wasting is minimized. Watch the folks working on piecework versus the folks paid by the hour. This doesn’t just apply to blue collar jobs. Highly paid executives can be very focused when their compensation is results-based instead of time-based. The banter takes place, but it’s mostly during mealtime and after work.
This is about intention. Good employees are always actively seeking out and doing what’s best for the organization. A good company doesn’t have a banter problem.
The big problem with social networking is time! My wife goes on facebook and I don’t see her for days sometimes. Do we really want staff to be hooked on these sites while they work?
I think banter between staff is great and it can make the most mundane tasks pass by quickly but there has to be limits. And with technology the way it is, cell phones and PDAs need to be controlled as well. All the chains and businesses that I work with have some policy about cell phones on the sales floor and for good reason.