The office, that place where you meet with the boss, who for some reason loves to have meetings every now and then to discuss the most minute and irrelevant topics. Your colleagues who are always buzzing about something, it’s either something about the media or about a cute picture of a cat wearing a hat, either ways it seems like a trend that isn’t going anywhere soon.
People become a part of an organization when they full blend into the culture and dynamics that occur randomly. It would seem like a big change to make especially when you are new in the system but culture is what makes every work place stand out. In order to improve on general output, every individual and organization must adopt and engage in healthy working habits and environmental practices.
What are healthy working habits and environmental practices?
This can be defined as a mannerism in which an employer or employee conducts activities in the work place in order to maintain a healthy, safe relationship with team members and to improve work ethics.
Relevance of healthy working habits and environmental practices
A big corporation with a well structured system and a large number of employees would be able to keep tabs on behaviors and working relations by adopting the most efficient forms of work ethics. This can be documented and distributed in form of company handbooks. They contain simple guidelines of expectations in behavior towards work, health and the environment. This ensures the best work ethics which becomes a reputation and a culture which is passed on to new intakes.
Environmental practices that foster good sustainable working conditions are a major part of every organizational framework. There are rules guiding every activity and time structures to create order. Quite often, individuality may cause a different set of dynamics that may not bring out the best in the overall objective of the company but there are ways to ensure that proper work ethics is maintained.
A healthy work habit or environmental practices that is likely to lead to improved behavior and working ethics which is a process and an on-going journey which would have to be revised and restructured every now and then. In setting the tone on office rules and regulations, this should apply to every individual and should be emphasized on a daily basis.
Sharing a work space with a group of other people has its ups and downs especially when it comes to accountability but there are various tactics that could be employed by the management to ensure a better work ethic;
Congestion
“Oh does this belong to you? I just saw it lying on the table and I picked it up”
Space is one major cause of conflict at work places. Encroachment of space and extreme provocation due to nearness is a possibility in offices with diverse cultural backgrounds. The answer to this would be creating a well spaced environment with well laid boundaries, this would breed respect and ensures that people seeks permission before encroaching into anyone’s personal space.
Safety habits
Work ethics isn’t just for a particular set of people, neither is it limited to just work style. Safety at work applies as well. There should be rules which ensure the safety of everyone and holds everyone accountable for their actions.
“Always shut the door.” This simple rule of privacy, “always switch off lights” rules that ensure conservation and discipline.
“ your table is a mess!” the act of leaving so much paperwork, files and stationary lying around disorderly or probably just creating a death trap by plugging lots of cables into sockets and creating a large web of cross-cables. This is highly unsafe for employees and requires a safety rule which tackles every aspect of safety and de-clustering.
Social support
A work environment with a law or mandate on social support relating to knowledge sharing would greatly aid in meeting the company’s objectives. Often time senior officers are swarmed with responsibilities and have no time for managing junior officers. This is more of a knowledge sharing and passing experience thing which feeds into better performance from junior officers.
Accountability
This is probably the most stressed quality in every organization. The ability to take charge and take responsibility for successes and failures all feed into effective company work ethics.
Unhealthy habits that breed bad work ethics are;
- Isolating one’s self
- Being disorganized and keeping a hazardous office arrangement
- Procrastination and office gossip
- Shying away from work with evasive excuses
- Over-sharing personal details at work
- Standing in resistance to progressive ideas or changes
Work ethics can be improved in different ways; this largely depends on the management standards and structure. However individuals can imbibe such culture for themselves and become the change the system needs.
