Gustavo Razzetti, who is hired by companies to improve his work culture, noticed a change since the beginning of the pandemic last year: more political fights, more managers losing control of their employees, a curious mix of hyper-engagement and lack of empathy.
“Employees are turning off their cameras, hiding behind avatars, becoming disrespectful,” said Razzetti, whose consultancy is called Fearless Culture. “They are being aggressive towards each other.”
Office conversations at some companies are starting to look as undisciplined as Internet conversations. That’s because conversation in the office is now conversation on the Internet. Many companies have been working online for almost a year, with plans to continue until 2021. And just as people are bolder on Twitter keyboards, they are bolder on keyboards in the workplace messaging platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack – with all the good and all the bad, but with much more legal responsibility.
Work culture experts say there are steps companies can take before lawyers get involved. Among them: closely monitoring large chat groups, listening to complaints, reminding employees that they are working and not playing with friends and being aware that moving to a virtual workforce can expose new problems, such as age discrimination .
In many American companies, this is the first time that colleagues have to deal with work and socializing almost entirely online. There is probably no going back: almost half of the U.S. workforce is working full-time at home, according to Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom. And 67% of companies expect work at home to be permanent or lasting, according to a study by S&P Global, which provides financial analysis.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone patted themselves on the back, like: ‘Ah, look, productivity has not dropped. We made the transition to digital. We did things we were looking to do – simplify processes, put things online, decentralize decision-making. But they were forgetting the culture, ”said Jennifer Howard-Grenville, professor of organizational studies at Cambridge University. “Now the reality of that has hit.”
When message boards, chat rooms and Facebook become work tools, weird humor is more common. Aggressive political discussions that would be out of place between the cubicles now look good. The hierarchy of physical space disappears when everyone is a username: confronting top management does not require a walk and a knock on the door, and confronting colleagues does not require sitting beside them for the rest of the day.
“I’ve seen text bullying on various types of internal instant messaging platforms and we’ve seen an increase in these types of complaints,” said John Marshall, a labor and civil rights attorney in Columbus, Ohio. Harassment of colleagues on internal messaging platforms is not new, he added, but now there is more.
These new work tools are designed to look like message boards and social media. Workers see this and adopt similar behaviors, say the researchers. Slack’s performative nature, in which colleagues nurture discussions in vast chat rooms by adding emojis, for example, means that frenzy grows and is difficult to contain when it starts.
“Employees ask themselves, ‘Well, what do I know that is similar to Slack?'” Said Mark D. Agars, a professor at California State University who studies organizational psychology. “It’s a Reddit sign. Therefore, we use these standards. And these standards are very different from professional standards. “
Some employers have responded strictly to political conversations online. The chief executive of cryptocurrency company Coinbase – whose workers have complained about disparate wages for women and minorities – recently told employees to limit themselves to work issues in online chats or find another job. Some of them accepted the offer.
But work culture experts say there is a middle ground. Therefore, the money saved in the office space is being spent on hiring corporate therapists like Razzetti.
It has a protocol for emergency work chat situations. First, it closes the problematic Slack channel. Then he divides the team for an intervention. Colleagues are invited to reflect on their own. Then they can meet with another colleague to share their feelings, then in groups of four. Finally, these small groups can begin to reintegrate into a new Slack channel.
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Some of the teachers and consultants recommend simple solutions: take turns to speak or post at meetings, require quiet time to read something together during a videoconference before discussing and give workers 90 seconds to vent about politics before starting a workday without politics .
“We have people struggling like teenagers online at work,” said Razzetti. “This can be a very serious thing.” So the recommendation of the professionals is, basically, to treat us all as if we were teenagers who fight online.
As with anything that involves communication in the workplace – especially conversations in the workplace in text format – there are legal responsibilities. There is a big legal difference between a troll with an opinion that is a stranger on the Internet and a troll with an opinion that can contribute to your performance evaluation. People can sue if they believe they are being harassed.
Anyone who seeks to prevent legal liability knows: The text is dangerous. The fact that workplace discussion now takes place in online chats is a nightmare for legal teams.
“You need to make sure you’re not writing – documenting – anything that offends people in a wild way,” said Leslie Caputo, whose title is a staff scientist at Humu, who makes workplace culture software. “For the millennial generation, the first age to grow up with instant messaging, we are so used to having our interactions prevalent that way that it can be difficult to remember that this is a workplace with different rules.”
Lawyers are starting to see more complaints. Some of the risks involve the casual way in which people interact on platforms, which are built to encourage casual interaction.
“We are seeing more indifferent conduct in general and treating co-workers as if they were your online friends,” said Danielle E. Sweets, a Los Angeles-based personal injury lawyer.
But friendly jokes for some can be evidence of litigation for others.
“Now, if someone is facing a hostile work environment, it will be written,” said Christina Cheung, a partner at Allred, Maroko & Goldberg who focuses on harassment cases.
An employment discrimination law firm recently posted this blog post offering its skills: “If you experienced discrimination or harassment in a virtual meeting, don’t wait … talk to a lawyer experienced in New Jersey workplace discrimination today to discuss your legal options, ”wrote Phillips & Associates.
Much has been written about the gender divide in homework, as mothers have a disproportionate amount of schoolwork at home on their laps. But working from home is making another division even more rigid: the generational division. Older employees are often less comfortable with the kind of constant digital conversation that is normal for younger employees.
“It is so difficult for them not to be in a room with people. They may not be so quick to attack Slack, ”said Caputo, from Humu. “How will this affect performance reviews? There can be a serious age prejudice that comes from all of this. “
An example: a worker is struggling to navigate new software or accidentally goes dumb, and the boss makes a boomer joke.
There are, of course, benefits to these changes. Ms. Caputo connected with colleagues in new ways. Her daughter has severe food allergies and there is now a Humu chat room for people who face the same problems. A senior leadership member joined. They are all united.
Internet chat rules have a unique blend of anonymity, lack of self-awareness, a sense of protection and humor. Behind an avatar and a username, we can be more blunt or cruel, careless, courageous and charming. Online communication provides a sense of distance and security and – easily overlooked in the dispute for the culture of the virtual workplace – fun. It also empowers employees who may not be as willing to speak in physical environments.
Sammy Courtright, co-founder and brand director of Ten Spot, a company that develops tools for healthy workplace involvement, compares behavior in the workplace now to online dating. Meeting someone in a bar and starting a conversation requires a level of empathy and nuance that is not always required when meeting someone on Tinder.
“It’s empowering in some ways – people can say what they want,” said Courtright. “Perhaps your persona is more direct online. They can be who they want to be. “