Workplace Systems

We often find that there are three phases in the experiences of employees working in dysfunctional workplaces. Recognizing these phases allows employees to shift from seeing heir failure to thrive as purely the result of their own deficiencies rather than a symptom of flaws in the company’s culture.

In Phase One, the employee believes that their hard work will pay off. What you put in is what you will get out in terms of recognition, promotion, and raises. When the employee fails to reap the rewards of hard work, they sometimes blame themselves. They start to wonder what they can do differently to achieve their goals.

Phase Two involves recognizing that the workplace is not always a meritocracy. But in Phase Two, this recognition comes on a micro rather than macro-level. You believe your manager is one bad apple in a system made to correct itself. In this phase, you use the channels in place – your manager or HR – to work towards solving problems.

When the situation is not fixed or gets worse, the employee enters Phase Three, realizing that the workplace has structural deficiencies, and they need to appeal outside of the traditional chain of command, enlisting support from both tangential players and higher ups.

While not every organization operates under a system that fails its employees, companies that avoid this problem are the exception rather than the rule. In this episode, Wesley and I share our own experiences in the workplace and discuss strategies for building a system of checks and balances.