How to Spot a Dysfunctional Office
Recognizing a dysfunctional workplace can help you make career choices. Being able to spot a dysfunctional company can give you the opportunity to opt out, or help you recognize when you've inadvertently taken on a challenge.
A workplace that's dysfunctional is like a wheel that's not turning properly. It's prongs are bent and twisted, and it's cog is either out of place, or the wrong size to hold the wheel together and keep it turning. A successful workplace has a wheel with all of it's vital components in place. You can easily see whether your place of work is successful, or not functioning correctly, by assessing the following points.
- Hierarchy
A dysfunctional workplace usually has a fuzzy hierarchy. Where job descriptions are vague and blurred, and no one is sure who reports to who, all the prongs on the work wheel become muddled up. This type of confusion regarding roles, and who is who, can lead to superiority struggles, and scapegoating. Not a pretty picture.
- Organization
Dysfunctional workplaces are disorganized. Rather than employees understanding what is to be done, and when, the accumulation of paper work, and business left when it should have been dealt with, renders all workers stressed out and over loaded. This means they become dissatisfied, and edgy. Employees may become distanced, or defensive.
- Work Space
The layout of an office can often tell you instantly whether it's a productive and creative space, or a negative and dysfunctional one. When office desks are placed so that employees face a wall, or have to sit with their backs to a main door, the result will be workers who feel uncomfortable, and are unable to concentrate and focus. They may also suffer from a nervous disposition and depression.
This is because we all have a natural urge to sit in what Feng Shui experts believe, is a position of strength. This position should be facing a door, but not directly opposite if possible, and with your back to the wall. Unlikely as it may seem to non believers, seating workers in the wrong position can make them unproductive and unhappy.
Dysfunctional workplaces tend to have a jumbled layout, when it comes to organizing desks, paper work and seating. Ideally, an office should have easy access, and clear pathways. Dysfunctional ones often have furniture in odd places, that block positive energy and hamper progress.
- Rules
Every successful establishment has rules and boundaries that have to be adhered to. Problems arise when boundaries are not set, and rules aren't made clear to employees. When workers don't understand how a company works, or how to implement positive changes, they can feel hemmed in, and unable to get ahead.
A workplace that's dysfunctional is where gossip, anger, arguments, misunderstandings and tension exists. A dysfunctional workplace can be turned around, if you are in a position to do so, if not, you may want to turn on your heels and run.
