STAR WARS. A blog about Star Wars. Well, it’s a blog about company culture, but hang in there. I’ll make sure to stuff superfluous references in here and probably desecrate the lore completely. Something for everyone!
A lot of people feel like workplace culture is this thing a company provides to its employees, like paid time off or pens. It’s not that at all. Workplace culture is basically the Force…the workForce™. (Yeah, cha-ching.)
Everything an employee does, from the way they act to the way they talk, has an impact on the workForce. If your company is a generally miserable place to work, chances are it’s because of the employees (management included) and not because of the perks or amenities. Sure, those things help, but if you’re regularly exposed to coworkers complaining about things to people who can’t fix them, you’re going to feel the pull towards the dark side. Resist this with all your midi-chlorians. If you feel a disturbance in the workForce when certain employees enter the room, you know what I mean.
Events don’t fix culture problems, but they can provide a great way to make your connection to the workForce stronger. A strategically placed bowling excursion would go a long way to make even the Death Star a little bit nicer place to work.
If the company is a great place to work, I can almost guarantee it’s because of the people who surround you. Cool facilities are nice, but they don’t make a company great on their own. Can you imagine how great the cafeteria was on the Death Star? They probably had chicken nuggets, like, every day. And what a view! But I would not like to work there. The Empire doesn’t care about its employees. They only care about galactic domination, no matter the cost to their employees.
A good company workForce is one where all of the employees believe in the company’s purpose and can rally together to achieve those goals. The stormtroopers were just there to collect a paycheck, but the rebels were fighting for something they believed in. At my last job, I was one of the clones. Management didn’t care if I was happy. I was just one in an endless line of replaceable stormtroopers. At this job, I know any of my coworkers, all the way to the top, would hop on their tauntaun to rescue me from a jam. It’s because of this common purpose we have such a great workForce. (The slide and keg help too.)
Firespring: “A Force for good.”
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