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Are You Your Workplace? follow this blog post

posted by on July 29, 2009

Seth Godin caught my attention this morning with a recent post on how one's workplace affects behavior and personality:

Your boss and your job determine not only what you do all day, but what you learn and who you interact with. Where you work is what you market. Work in a high stress place and you're likely to become a highly stressed person, and your interactions will display that. Work for a narcissist and you'll develop into someone who's good at shining a light on someone else, not into someone who can lead. Work for someone who plays the fads and you'll discover that instead of building a steadily improving brand, you're jumping from one thing to another, enduring layoffs in-between gold rushes. Work for a bully and be prepared to be bullied.

Having survived a bad job or two myself, I know just what he means. (There's a reason I know why I need to avoid certain work environments: past positions can be excellent aversion therapy.)

Recruiters and hiring managers often speak of finding a candidate with the right "fit" for the role and company. Yet how many candidates seriously examine whether a given position will be good for them not only in terms of career advancement and personal goals, but their stress levels, personal interactions, and overall happiness? It can be hard think of such long-term things -- especially when in need of a job. But such considerations can make the difference between landing a job you survive and a job you love.

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  • 1 point 3 months ago

    I'm sometimes surprised at how oblivious senior leadership can be to the productivity lost because of a bad manager. 

    But there seems to be 2 schools of thought:  the 'carrot' and the 'stick' - and frequently, the people in the most senior roles are the ones who are most likely to think that the 'stick' method is the most effective. 

    I've written about this before, actually:  If we all know that torture doesn't work (i.e. isn't an effective motivator), why do we think that 'mean' bosses are a good business strategy? 

    I'm sure that proper research would find that happy workplaces are more productive workplaces, but most organizations don't do this kind of research - because the people in a position to approve the research project/budget tend to be the ones most guilty of 'meanness' in the first place!

    Sometimes I am sad that workplaces aren't really ever meritocracies.

    (sigh)

  • 0 points 3 months ago

    When I am in the position of recruiting for my company, I look for a candidate to be a good fit not only for the role and company, but also for the team he/she will be a part of. It’s said that “people don’t leave companies, they leave their managers” therefore I find important to check the compatibility between the candidate and the hiring manager.

    Being an HR Generalist, I have the advantage of knowing the line managers strengths and weaknesses, as I am in charge with their development as well. And that helps me a LOT in recruiting for their teams.