When I worked in a startup, there was this unwritten rule that the person that worked the longest was the most helpful. It was like a direct correlation existed between hours sitting at a computer and value to the company.
This placed no focus whatsoever on accomplishment. Just activity. So a person who sat at their desk and drummed up $200,000 in sales in a single morning was useless compared to a programmer that worked on a single function for 100 hours in a single week.
Crazy, right?
But my point isn’t value. Or the fact that great value can come in a very short time. My point isn’t even about activity versus accomplishment—though that would be an excellent topic.
My point is different.
I also worked at a company where our shift (yes, I worked at a clothing store where we used timecards) started at 3:30 pm. But people routinely showed up and clocked in at 3:35, and 3:45, and sometimes even 4:00 pm.
And they still took their 15 (sometimes 17) minute break. And they still left exactly at 7:30 pm—regardless of what time they showed up.
Crazy, right?
But my point isn’t tardiness. Or the fact that certain industries are filled with workers who don’t care much about the details. Or even that jobs with timecards likely see a lot of turnover.
My point is different.
While I didn’t work at this company, a very good friend did. And at his company, people turned in expense reports with their entire cellular bill on there—even if they didn’t use their phone solely for work purposes.
It was easy. It was mostly for business, and the time it would take to split it out was too much work. And so the company was charged for everything.
Crazy, right?
But my point isn’t about corporate cellular plans. It’s not about liability and/or company theft. It’s not even about crappy employees that shouldn’t work for your company because they have no integrity.
My point is different.
My point is that in every one of these situations, these dynamics were accepted.
In every one of these companies, these were unwritten but acceptable rules—where people knew they could show up late, or expense things they shouldn’t. The unwritten but acceptable rule was that people should stay late, even if it was ineffective.
These unwritten, but acceptable rules are the things we don’t talk about when we talk about corporate culture. They’re part of the unwritten playbook that people learn.
And they demonstrate a lack of setting boundaries that employees clearly understand as things that are off-limits.
- You must arrive on time.
- You must only expense what you should.
- And you must take breaks—because we care about achievement.
Our WordPress companies are all still pretty young.
Our corporate cultures are all still adolescent. And we likely have more unwritten rules than we do written ones.
So it begs the question, what boundaries have we set? And does everyone know what actions are off-limits?
I find this is a critical set of questions every young company has to work through in order to create the open environment for people to flourish—knowing that if they stay inside the boundaries, they’re free to be creative and deliver tons of value, based on achievement, rather than activity.
What’s your experience with setting boundaries in the workplace?
Chris Lema is the VP of Software Engineering at Emphasys Software, where he manages high performers and oversees product development and innovation. He’s also a blogger, ebook author and runs a WordPress meetup in North County San Diego. His coaching focuses on helping WordPress businesses, or businesses wanting to leverage WordPress.
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