Until people matter, the work won't matter

In July 2018, a local daily revealed how Chinese nationals operating the standard gauge railway (SGR) had created a racist, neo-colonial and discriminatory working environment for Kenyan workers.

The article exposed racially segregated common spaces, locomotives, and vans used at the stations.

There were no washrooms in the driver's cab so drivers relieved themselves publicly on the tracks.

The locals complained of worn out protective equipment that took two years to replace, long working hours and inadequate pay. Unfortunately, these are symptomatic traits of almost all workspaces. 

A month ago, I started an online conversation on toxic work spaces triggered by a condescending comment I had read about workspaces.

What followed was a horrific litany of an exploitative culture similar to what the SGR workers let on or even worse.

Employees of non-profit and profit-making organisations, private and public institutions, large or small companies all complained of rising mental illness, depleted self-esteem, inadequate pay, sexual exploitation, long working hours and insufficient tools required to do good work. 

Workspaces naturally operate in hierarchical model, meaning there's always someone at the top whose say is final.

Hierarchies have existed for centuries, so complete separation from hierarchy doesn't really exist, but what does exist is the possibility of replacing toxic with non-toxic hierarchies.

Ideally, being high in rank should be about stewardship and not oppression as is frequently assumed.

An undercover recruiter argues that a top-down hierarchy can stifle employee experience leaving workers with a lack of control, motivation, and desire to excel. 

Which throws light upon a rooted culture of devaluing workers that successively creates space for physical, emotional and financial abuse by piling pressure on people.

This compounding pressure has proven deadly as witnessed in the ill-fated story of a PWC employee who allegedly committed suicide due to his silent struggle with burnout and emotional imbalance.

In addition, several lawyers lamented on this same pressure together with constant harassment, mistreatment and being subjected to terrible working conditions during their mandatory pupillage programme. 

Consultants as well voiced their displeasure with tedious bureaucratic processes, extensively delayed payments, disregard of their time and power plays.

On top of these are countless complaints of criminal predatory behaviour that women continually face.

As maddening as it is, sexual harassment is still used to limit women from rightfully advancing in their careers which is a significant failure of workspaces not being to double up as safe spaces with minimal awareness of threats women are exposed to.

For example, when a woman works late into the night and isn't assured of safe transport home, isn't that brutality?

How then do we start changing existing toxicity in workspaces? Well...we must go back to the beginning where we all agree that human beings need to feel safe, recognised and prioritised for their full worth.

In order for this to happen, workspaces ought to move towards creating a culture that values people beyond their professional input; people aren’t simply Excel sheets, Word documents and deadlines they’re people first.

More so, workspaces must nurture a collective responsibility attitude owned by everyone and equip employees with needed tools to attain their optimum. 

Oxford Royale Academy explains why we need our colleagues, peers, and friends to respect us and the work we do.

Without this, we end up feeling useless and worthless. A vast part of respect goes along with paying people on time and paying them well as a sign of honour for their work and input.

Making people wait for months for their payment wears out employees faster than the actual work does. 

Again, working towards abolishing existing hierarchies that grant respect and dignity according to rank should be a mandatory focus.

Citation HR adds that equality, respect, and fair communication form part of a quality team. Just because someone is more senior doesn’t give them the right to talk down to others, or treat them any less equally.

Workspaces must particularly shift from obsessing over how great they look and focus on how great their employees are treated/feel.

Undergoing regular people management programmes is highly recommended, especially now that workspaces and employees are growing increasingly dynamic.

More and more people are getting into remote working arrangements that allow for diversification and working multiple jobs.

This kind of fluidity needs a re-evaluation of old human resource policies to be able to support employees better and build healthy non-toxic workspaces. 

Lastly, examining the true practice of the open door policy is another important recommendation. Employees should be protected from speaking up and reporting any kind of harassment.

Establishing secure internal structures that don't vilify disgruntled employees is one of the best way to better workspaces.

By learning how to hear uncomfortable truth and consistently adjusting enables toxicity to be expelled.

Bridget Hyacinth beautifully explained "why people leave managers not companies", and that in the end turnover is mostly a manager issue.

Her Linkedin piece reiterates that in spite of how good a job may be, people will quit if the reporting relationship is not healthy.

Author Erika Anderson also interrogates a business world where it is obvious there is so much out of employees' control.

However, how they treat their employees is directly within their control.

Yet disappointingly many executives still reject focusing on improving employee satisfaction as superficial, a waste of time and money when there’s enough data supporting the connection between well-treated, satisfied employees and good business results.