Defining A Civilized Workplace

There’s a well-known story of a famous Jewish scholar, Rabbi Hillel, who was challenged to define Judaism while standing on one leg. What he said can just as easily apply to what it takes to create a civilized workplace:

Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. All the rest is commentary.

—Rabbi Hillel

Would executives be so keen to cut costs by sacking people, if they considered how it might feel to be sacked themselves—without, of course, their elaborate golden parachutes? Would they take such a macho attitude to management if they suffered it in return?

Actually, I fear the answer is “yes.” Top executives have typically experienced a macho, winner-takes-all culture most of their working lives. They work excessive hours as a matter of course, which is perhaps why they feel no pangs of conscience at inflicting the same hours on people below them. The notion that what’s good for me is good for you—or, in this case, you must suffer what I suffered—accounts for much of the callous treatment meted out to people in organizations. Like military recruits subjected to cruel “hazing” rituals, those inflicting the harm are doing only what was done to them before. Since they reached the top, they don't question the route they took.

Besides, what you have learned to value pretty much makes you what you are. People rarely do anything that they don’t believe is somehow in their own best interests. These macho leaders probably believe the power-driven culture they grew up in was both natural and good for them. It certainly formed many of their values: the fixation on achievement that causes them to subordinate everything to feeding their egos; the blind belief in competition and it’s accompanying terror of finding themselves outside the winners’ circle; the obsession with speed and decisive action to prove their corporate virility; and the permanent focus on using quick results to build a political power base.

Our society has a bias towards valuing money and power, so it’s no surprise that ambitious people are willing to sacrifice health, relationships and other people’s welfare to gain them. Those whose rewards include stock options have a built-in incentive to drive the organization’s share price ever higher, which usually means taking any opportunity to boost reported profits. Putting an excessive value on power makes leaders into tyrants. Over-valuing money creates a climate of greed and dishonesty. Lust for recognition fuels the actions of corporate prima donnas.

How does this relate to creating a civilized workplace? As long as the majority place a higher value on material wealth than living a civilized life, they’ll choose actions that sacrifice living well in favor of making more money. The same goes for those who want power, status or constant massaging of their egos. In other aspects of our lives, we take steps to limit this phenomenon, if not to eradicate it totally. We have laws to curb fraudsters, punish power-crazed gangsters who terrorize whole neighborhoods, check corrupt politicians and generally limit people from exercising their urges in ways that harm others. Despite public adulation of celebrities, there’s still some sense of disgust when egos get out of hand. It’s only in the workplace that anti-social behavior is regularly applauded.

We won't get civilized workplaces until those in power choose civilized values over greed, power-mania and feathering their own nests: values like trust, honesty, creativity, concern for others and fair dealing. Workplace values always reflect the day-to-day choices of those in positions of power. Ignore what the top dogs say or write. Look at the culture they’ve created and you’ll see their values displayed in full view. A civilized workplace depends on civilized leaders, just as a barbaric, profit-obsessed sweat-shop is produced by leaders of the opposite nature. You are what you value, and that applies to organizations as much as individuals.

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