Workplace culture is something that effects all work places and all types of employees, even programmers! A good workplace culture can cause a business and its employees to thrive or it can cause it to tank with its employees fighting against the establishment. Understanding what workplace culture is an important part of either providing a successful one, or co-existing within one.

What is workplace culture?

In my mind, workplace culture is the habitat that a company and or business creates with and for its employees. With; because the type of people in the workplace affects the type of culture established and for; because it is the individuals and employees that co-exist within this habitat that are the ones that experience it.

Have you ever had a feeling or emotional response when walking into a business or company or formulated impressions based on initial observations? Chances are you have experienced a small glimpse of workplace culture in action; That’s the type of environment the people work in, the way they interact with one another, the ways they go about their work, the practices undertaken in this environment etc. Some of these things quickly become apparent at first glance whilst some of them are more subtle, revealing themselves over longer periods of time.

What is the importance of workplace culture?

Workplace culture is something that exists in and around where you work. Whether you realise it or not, it has an impact on you, and you have an impact on it. That’s pretty profound when you think about it! It’s a give/take scenario that you experience and you influence. How much you give and how much you take is dependent on the environment in which you work and the culture it has operating. I liken it to Newton’s 3rd law of motion:

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction - Newton

Thinking of it this way suggests that in order for an entity to stand still or stay balanced, it has to have an equal and opposite counter balance. If one side pushes harder than the other, movement begins to occur in the direction of the push or force applied. What happens when something speeds up and gains momentum? Eventually it has to slow down (at least in a world where gravity and inertia apply). What’s more, either it comes to a stop slowly or is halted in its tracks by an opposing entity with which it collides. What does this all mean in the context of workplace culture? The force behind each side (give and take) is ultimately what shapes the outcome of this culture.

The two sides of workplace culture

  1. The give - is what you as an employee gives back to your culture
  2. The take - is what you as an employee absorb or take from your workplace that you don’t physically contribute to

In order to find balance both sides need to be equal or close too. What happens when the give is significantly higher than the take? People get tired, frustrated, depressed, work ethic drops, business peaks for a short period of time and plummets there after. Employees give, give, give back to the business but this sort of behaviour isn’t usually sustainable. A work environment that has high demanding tasks but rewards or gives little to its employees is not an enjoyable or satisfactory work environment for the people in it. People get tired, burn out or leave. Who want to be under high stress when there is little reason to do it?

On the flip side, a culture that is made by take, take, take is one that employees benefit from and the business suffers from. Too much freedom, to many liberties are taken by its employees, to much flexibility gained, etc. People within the culture consume the business and provide little back to it.

The significance

What this means is that both sides of the workplace culture need to be balanced. Nobody wants to work in an environment they don’t enjoy and no business can sustain itself unless its employees equally give back to it. Create an environment in which people want to contribute in, where people want to collaborate, where people occasionally want to work overtime. Motivating employees and creating an environment which motivates them is the surest way to encourage them to give back to this environment.

What is it about your workplace culture you like or dislike?