KAREN

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A business owner from the state of Washington called me the other day to talk about an interesting scenario that completely disrupted his office staff. Like many events, it started out over something seemingly benign, and as such, was ignored, believing the passage of time, would resolve the problem organically.

To set the stage, the company has nice surroundings: well-kept administrative space, an open floor concept with plenty of room, configured nicely with 7-8 comfortable cubicles in which a well-tenured workforce operates efficiently. That said, as sometimes happens in a collective work environment, one employee felt the ambient temperature was too warm and scaled the room thermostat back to a more pleasant setting.

You know what happened next…

Another employee openly expressed dissatisfaction at the lowered office temperature, and purposefully returned the thermostat to the pre-established setting.

Take a guess.

You win the luggage!

This disagreement led to a mild, but emotional confrontation between the two employees. While not resolved, the disgruntled employees agreed to leave the thermostat at the original higher temperature.

Do you really think that was the end of it?

The next day, the warm-sensitive employee brought a floor fan into work, placed it the cubicle, and set its speed to the maximum rate of “5” to lower the temperature in the cubicle. While that cubicle was now cooler than before, the entire office space was affected by the disruptive sound of the fast-paced fan. Predictably, another passionate discussion between the two employees ensued. This time, no balanced resolution was attained, with the second employee going to management to file a complaint. Surprised by the adolescent nature of the co-workers on this issue, management simply said “work it out amongst yourselves.”

The next day, the second employee brought in a space heater, placed it in the cubicle, and set it to “high.”

Do you see where this is going yet?

The next day, the first employee wore an inordinate amount of perfume to work, and positioned the office fan to blow the perfume-laden air directly into the second employee’s cubicle. For those keeping score, we now have differential temperatures, annoying fan noise, and the redolent aroma of perfume in the air. In turn, the second employee filed a formal complaint to management that the newly-fragrant office air quality was affecting the employee’s work productivity due to coughing spasms with the belief that possible lung damage (i.e., workers compensation claim) could result if the work environment did not improve quickly.

Upon hearing this scenario, I straightforwardly recommended that management conduct a prompt, thorough, and fair investigation, collecting testimony from all the employees housed in the office space, not only the two original protagonists. Unfortunately, no directional decision was offered. Hardly Solomonesque, management issued formal written reprimands to both key players, returned the thermostat to the original setting, and instructed that all personal office space equipment be brought to their homes.

Instead of allowing an ostensibly small item to fester uncontrollably, ultimately affecting the entire office team, management should have set the tone, expectation, and standard from the very beginning which would likely have saved all the office employees some expended emotion, hurt feelings, and discontent.

In my mind, management should have monthly meetings with entire departments to provide direction, clarify roles, discuss departmental issues, solicit ideas for improvement, and build upon personal rapport.

By the way: What’s the temperature in all of your company departments, crews, or branch offices?

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