Maintaining a functional workplace culture is tricky

Continue reading from the first part here.

But then again, there are two schools of thought to it. One is kind of the Andrew Tate-style where the goal is to take no prisoners and be very much aware of your 'self-worth,' fight back when it is needed (even at times with the trivial stuff) and be that Hulk-esque persona (which might backfire at times by earning the label of 'beyadob', which is applicable even if you are polite but firm. 

The other school is more of Sadhguru-style, where you show resilience, hostile behaviour does not affect you, and sticks and stones may break the bones, but words won't hurt you. But considering Bangladesh, it is difficult to slide with either of the extremes. 

Then again, although it is the easiest task to blame our country for every little thing that goes wrong, we sometimes forget that the onus is not on the country itself; rather, it's a shared responsibility on us as well.

Let's look at the nitty-gritty of the so-called behavioural issues of the new employees as well. Every organisation has a culture and certain customs that give the workplace its identity (for example, the 'work hard, party harder' notion). 

New employees, owing to their upbringing/education or the environment they have been in, might just face a cultural shock in a certain organisation. While ideally, you get to know about the job's responsibilities in the Job Description, that might not always be the case. Even if the JD covers the entire responsibility, it does a poor job of reflecting the organisational culture, mostly the customs. 

Then again, in their defence, you cannot really paint a true picture of this culture or practice in the written format now, can you? Will anyone truly write in the JD, or will anyone expect that the so-called culture of a certain office is to say, for example, attend mandatory morning huddle (where people talk about how a certain Bangladeshi cricket player was backstabbed by his once best friend or even more random like Porimoni's marriage or Hero Alam). These might seem unseemly or sometimes weird to the new employee. 

But in reality, it is more of an esoteric aspect, which might perplex them, at least initially. This cultural shock might thwart the employee of their balance since it doesn't fall within their maxims. Now, just like meeting a new person, here in these cases, the employee should be adaptive, learn the culture, get to know it, and then choose whether to play it Andrew Tate and his disruptive style or be the Sadhguru and find a middle ground, nay a cocoon where they can stay while not letting the external factor affect them. 

That is where the trouble begins. Like teenagers, they act out, or some just go straight to frustration, even at the slightest chagrin. Those who can handle it or learn how to handle it gain from it.

From the HR/management point of view, there is a reason to mix and match rather than putting stars with stars and stripes with stripes. Yes, they must have a clear vision of mental health and the other environmental factors that affect productivity, but at the same time, the insurmountable task of placing the right fit in the right environment can be quite taxing. 

Referring to the earlier notion of introverts vs. extroverts, that was just a basic segregation. If someone wants to throw segregation into the mix, it can be as cryptic as putting an emotionally bottled-up Batman-like person with an idyllic half-maudlin person. There is no one perfect way to put it.

The factor spearheading the reason for mixing stars with stripes is simple: to attain diversity. This diversity is the key to attaining growth in so many cases. 

Let me give you the finest example. If cricket was confined to England only, then we wouldn't have gotten the Shakib-Tamim to fight in the first place (that escalated quickly, perhaps?), but yeah, all these world cups would mean nothing; rather, it would be one big county championship. 

Similarly, diversity helps you grow to lengths one might not even assume. Again, brazenly providing an example of our cricket team, the fact that we would have a pace attack…….nah, you know what, better to focus on the Afghan cricket team who not only play exciting cricket but has got fresh bunches of spinners despite their environment and lack of facilities. They have made the world cricket much more exciting so far, and this is a prime example of how diversity can work. 

Getting out of your comfort zone and trying to push the boundaries constantly provides you with growth. The office politics, the dog eats dog game of the work environment, learning how to tackle all of these requires being exposed to them in the first place. 

Diversity acts as the perfect catalyst for attaining that. You don't get to win the Game of Thrones without playing the Game of Thrones. While putting like-minded people in the same cohort might produce wonderful results for a while, that puts them at risk of being a 5-year-old regarding some necessary skills. 

Exposure to different people, cultures, beliefs, and doctrines brings you to a scrumptious and nascent point of view by expanding your horizons. This doesn't exacerbate your own tenets; it shouldn't really; rather, it would dwindle the rigidness that every person owns. It helps to bring reverence for other's opinions, and you learn how to live and let live. 

Continue reading the third part here.

The writer is an engineer turned finance enthusiast, trying to drink gulps from the immensely stimulating ocean of finance/economics besides his regular job in the capital market. Tell him how he can do that at [email protected]