Faux Pas?

[kaasirpent]

Got to work a little late, today, and parked right next to someone else also just arriving. She got her stuff together before I did and went into the building. When I arrived a minute later, she was signing in. So an employee, but not one who normally works out of this site.

Got on the elevator with her and she asked, "Which floor?" I said, "Four," and she pressed the button. I thought she looked vaguely familiar.

Then she asked how I liked the new floor. (Two floors of the building have been redesigned recently. The color scheme is . . . bright. Like someone fellated a box of Crayola and then used the result to paint our walls.)

It's Friday. I had a rough night (leg cramps; long story). Without considering, I said, "Well, it's there. I mean, the colors are kind of bright, but I guess I'll get used to them eventually."

And then she said, "Those are ICARE colors."

A small digression. ICARE is my company's "Shared Principles." It stands for Integrity, Customer-First, Accountability, Respect, Excellence. We are constantly bombarded with it. It's painted on the wall across from our elevators. It's on our intranet. It's on our web site. It's integral to our annual self-assessments. I had just, you know . . . never noticed that there were colors associated with it. End digression.

So, it was at that point that I realized I was talking to Someone Important™. It was at that point that I finally realized why she looked vaguely familiar. She's one of the vice presidents.

Heh heh. Whoops?

But then, she said, "When we" -- don't think I didn't notice the presence of this word; I did -- "were selecting the color scheme, I thought it looked like someone spilled a bag of Skittles and said, 'Oh, there's our color palette right there!'"

We laughed. Then another higher-up (only three layers above me in the organization) got on the elevator and he and she talked. She bade me to 'have a good day!' as I left the elevator on the fourth floor.

I can only hope she didn't see my badge. Which I was wearing, prominently, in plain sight, name in a nice, bold font.

Heh. Heh heh. Heh?

I guess I should be really glad that I didn't blurt out what I've been calling the office on my Facebook page: Romper Room.

Comments

[etherial.livejournal.com]

You should send her a bag of skittles through the inter-office mail. Before she sends one to you.

Foot in mouth disease

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Only a goblin could think of such evilness. You did mention the awful ADHD garish colour scheme before but it was that appalling abomination of an acronym that had the Izzie in virtual vomit land.

Whenever I see a company with the words 'respect' or 'integrity' in their so called values then I know they are out to squeeze you till the pips squeak before tossing you on the dung heap while all the while proclaiming that "Our people are our greatest asset"

And if they have a Mission Statement loudly proclaiming such values then it is well and truly time to abandon all hope of escaping the mindless corporate zombies

Do they have snoops and sneaks that go googling to see that no one is taking the piss out of their Buzzword salad?

You couldn't make up this corporate kitsch. But it does seem that even the big wigs deep down don't take it seriously

Dying to find out if you ever hear from her again. Here's hoping that she is not one of the hordes of Corporate Zombies.

Reply to Izmeina

[kaasirpent]

For the record, I think the idea of the 'shared principles' is kind of silly, but I don't believe the company to be a bunch of corporate zombies -- or drones or automatons or weasels or whatever other pejorative springs to mind. :)

They seem genuinely concerned that employees' needs are addressed when possible. We have an annual anonymous survey which we are encouraged to fill out and make free-text comments on. A committee of employees headed by a couple of higher-ups reviews the results, and they do make changes based on the results. I've seen a number of my concerns (shared by others) addressed. This ranges from being able to work from home for up to two days every week to the availability of vegetarian options in the café on a daily basis.

There are organizations at the company for female, African-American, Asian-American (new), GLBTQ, and Latino employees that meet on company time. Individual departments have things like bowling (during company time, catered), movies (during company time; the next one in my group is Star Trek: Into Darkness), baby showers (during company time), and other, similar things. We have frequent "Lunch & Learn" sessions where we get lunch and bring it to one of the big conference rooms, and there's someone there to teach us about some topic. We've had everything from time management to Toastmasters to "How a pharmacy works." (Healthcare company; this is good info to know.)

I have worked for the company for going on 8 years and have only twice been asked to work late. Twice. Both times, my boss stayed and ordered food for everyone, and we were given a day off to be used later. HAVE I worked late on my own? Yes. But entirely on my own and with no pressure from above. And I get paid overtime when I do.

Our CEO meets monthly with selected groups of employees over breakfast and talks to us about what we do and any concerns we have. I've been to one of those, and it was very relaxed and while I don't have the illusion that the man has any idea who I am or what it is that I do, at least he takes the time to do it.

I work in the software development department of one of the divisions. We are encouraged to team up with a couple of people from other functional groups, come up with a project that doesn't have to be business-related, and work on it for a period of 8 weeks at 20% (one day per week for 8 weeks). Just to learn something or try something new or explore an idea. The team then has to do a presentation about what they learned. If it leads to a new product for the company, then yay. But it's more about getting to know people from other departments and keeping the learning process going.

I could continue. I'm 100% sure there's a calculated, bottom-line, business reason for all of it. But everyone benefits from having happier employees, right?

I sincerely doubt that the company has snoops or sneaks that go around Googling for stuff like this post. I'm equally sure that they do look for anything mentioning the company by name, which is why I don't do that. I'm not entirely stupid. :) I don't use real names on the rare instances I do complain about something, and I friend-lock those posts. I made this one public because it was more a statement about my own unthinking comment than anything else, and that she took it in stride. She could have just left it at "Those are ICARE colors" and made me feel like a giant douchebag in an uncomfortably silent elevator. But she didn't. She made a joke out of it and then went out of her way to wish me a good day.

If she is a corporate zombie, she works sufficiently far from me that I'll probably not see her again unless we just happen to end up in an elevator together. And if she does, and recognizes me, I hope she brings up Skittles. :)

Re: Reply to Izmeina

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

It looks like your company is actually walking the talk. So so not used to seeing that in this bit of the world

I'd worked in a small business (a 60 bed nursing home) which had been around for at least 30 years and I had been there for 13 of those. Exactly 5 years ago the owner sold it to a subsidiary of an investment bank. Their spin doctors made a big deal of business as usual and keeping the friendly family atmosphere. But soon the corporate colours, mission statement, values and posters proclaiming that "Our people are our greatest asset" started appearing everywhere. About the only thing they did not put their logo on was the toilet paper

So when you mentioned two words that formed part of your company 'shared principles' the ones beginning with R and I ;) and the digression explaining that this ICARE stuff is everywhere
it was like a red rag to a bull and the old overworked Corporate Buzzword BS meter went straight off the dial

So I goes into goblin rant mode assuming this is going to be more of the same on steroids and with a colour scheme too!

But from your reply I can see that I was way too hasty in making such cynical assumptions and I apologize for that

A list of the employee perks like the ones you mentioned would have our goblin masters rolling on the floor in fits of hysterical laughter. They are the Australian equivalent of Wall Street Vulture Capitalists and they have been buying up nursing homes all over the country and turning them into giant government funded ATMs

Their idea of training is to expect you to turn up for such things on your days off even when on holidays and then not to bother paying you. After putting in 2 or 3 pay queries most people would just simply give up

Working unpaid overtime was expected but try leaving one minute early and their Kleptos clock would dock you 72 seconds.

Staff Christmas parties were one of the first things to go and while just about every company in the country offers lunch on the house for anyone working Christmas Day, this lot did not give us so much as a crumb and declared this was "Company Policy"

Talking about them on Facebook was grounds for dismissal if they find out and that is without even mentioning anyone or anything by name. Most of the memos were concerned with preserving the image and reputation of the company rather than improving care for residents

Even the concept of being good to employees for no other reason than enlightened self interest is completely alien to them

But the really scary thing is that whenever we did get a local manager who really did want to look after the staff and do the sort of community building sorts of things at your work place, the goblin bosses above would go into action and within four months she would be gone and replaced with a follower of the Company Line
In other words no room for friendly Skittles bosses who try to make their staff feel at ease in awkward situations

Re: Reply to Izmeina

[kaasirpent]

UGH. That sounds like a hell-hole, and I'm sorry anyone has to work under those conditions. Of course, it being a nursing home is even worse, because as bad as the staff has it, at least they can leave. The residents are stuck there.

My mother and I spent a lot of time in two different nursing homes back in 2003/4 when my grandmother had to spend some time first in one that was out of town and then in the one in my hometown.

The things I've seen appall me. APPALL.

Re: Reply to Izmeina

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Yesss. It's one thing working in a toxic corporate culture. It's much worse when you actually live in the place and cannot escape.

What the goblins don't seem to realize is that even the demented oldies can see right through them. Actually especially the demented people. They pick up on the non verbal reality not the corporate fantasy. Atmosphere is one of those things that you cannot fake. And if there's a culture of fear it permeates everything.

All the perceptive managers we ever from the old days who were real nurses not bean counters used to say that if you want your staff to be kind and caring to the residents you have to be kind and caring to them too. So so true. Even the nicest person with the best of intentions ends up passing on the parcel of misery if they are constantly being made to do more with less by bosses who are all sticks and no carrots

These sorts of managers walked the talk by being kind themselves and making it as easy as possible for staff to do the right thing for the residents. Starting with the simple matter of simply having enough staff
The goblins set about making it more and more difficult to do the job of actually caring for the oldies. They cut the care staff, contracted out the cleaning and constantly pulled people off the floor to attend box ticking nonsense without any regard for the residents. Looking after their needs became a non core activity. It was like they were putting obstacles in the way. And when we would point this stuff out at the endless staff meetings they would tell us how their staffing ratios were 'world's best practice' and 101 other managerial mumbo jumbo excuses

And the so called government supervisory authorities are a bunch of lap dogs more concerned with paperwork and box ticking rather than resident care.

It seems to be pretty much the same everywhere. I remember some of your posts about those homes and how miserable they were. It must be even worse now with all the belt tightening and budget restrictions in the USA.

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

Uh. I have no idea how to respond based on the comment before mine...

I really like it when my company higher ups socialize in the elevator, and all that. I also work for a company with a mission statement and shared values plastered on every conference room wall, and by the elevators, and all that. (and we buy your company's products too).

Um. I really love all that corporate BS. There's a lot of shit I don't like, but company rah rah is not one of them.

[kaasirpent]

See my reply to the comment above your reply. :)

[kaasirpent]

When I told what the shared principles were, I edited out the explanatory text. Here it is in full:

Integrity - We do what's right. Integrity is the impartial and honest standard by which we make decisions and take actions, large and small, every day. In our business, integrity is mandatory, not optional.

Customer-First - We succeed when customers succeed. We put our customers first, no matter what job we hold, no matter whether we work alone or as part of a team. A customer is anyone, including a coworker, to whom we have a responsibility to help succeed.

Accountability - We take personal responsibility. We accomplish what we promise on time and on budget. Part of accountability is pulling your weight as part of a team and actively sharing information and effort.

Respect - We treat people with dignity and consideration. We are diverse as people and professionals, yet our success depends on our mutual trust and teamwork. Diversity builds strength in our team. We are strongest when we are respected by our colleagues and encouraged to contribute to our highest capabilities.

Excellence - We insist on quality. Even as we challenge each other to the highest level of achievement and quality, we also understand that growth is born from risk.

Yeah, it's totally corp-speak, but show me one corporation that doesn't write everything in the same voice. :) I think it's required.

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

I would like all that, if I worked for your company. Which I almost got recruited to a couple years ago. But however, I want to move back to a small sized company when I move again.

Usually at the small companies they spend more time walking than talking, but it could absolutely be fun to help build this kind of culture somewhere. Or at least I think so, unapologetically. =)