We Are All Responsible For Our Workplace Culture

It’s Not What “They” Are Doing – But What You Are Doing in Your Workplace

“Everyone is responsible for the culture and reputation of our workplace.”

These are the words Lieutenant General David Morrison spoke in his hard-hitting video message to over 60,000 employees of the Australian Army on June 12, 2013.  It stung, and it was true.

As with life, so it goes with where we work. The buck stops, as they say, with me. I am responsible for what I give and take from my workplace. So let’s take a deeper dive and see what I mean.

The Role of a Respectful Workplace Policy

Typically your Respectful Workplace Policy is commonly authored and approved by your Human Resources Department.  The opening paragraph or two will contain inclusive language to inform everyone that the responsibility of their day-to-day experience rests with them. Company policies reinforce the responsibilities from the Board of Directors to the Volunteers.

But the policy can only go so far! The following anonymous story is one of my favorite play-on-words because of the uncomfortable truth it mirrors to us all. When the story mentions “important job,” understand I refer to “treating my colleagues with respect.”

A Story to Be Told on Who is Responsible

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. 

There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was asked to do it. 

Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. 

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did. 

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. 

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. 

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Put that into the context of most workplaces, and the need for personal responsibility becomes crystal clear.

What about the Responsibility for Safety?

It’s just the same when we talk about safety at work.

Whose job is safety?

Answer: it is everybody’s.

It is not just the Safety Supervisor, the CEO,  the Safety Committee, or that of anyone with the word Safety in their job title.

Everybody is responsible for making sure that possibly harmful conditions get noticed, reported, and fixed accordingly. That would include deteriorating or damaged relationships between people in the workplace.

Unaddressed Behavior

Using that play-on-words passage from earlier, Somebody notices a broken window (aka a moment of incivility) but does nothing about it. Instead, (everybody) thinks it is someone else’s job to fix those things. If that happens, we run the risk of what began as incivility escalating to something much more severe. 

Uncivil behaviors will escalate into harassment and even bullying.

Even worse, when unaddressed, incivility can develop into peer-to-peer bullying. Events may start with simple disrespect and develop into patterns that exclude and ostracize others.

You know this is what happens since you have likely witnessed it happening at work – to you or someone else.

You Choose What You Will Cultivate at Work

For me, it comes back to that last line of the anonymous quote:

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

In David Morrison’s video, he states: “If you become aware of any individual degrading another, then show moral courage and take a stand against it.”

He is talking about that personal responsibility piece. 

It is the responsibility of all of us to show up and be the change we want to see.

Employers are legally accountable for creating safe and healthy workplaces, but they can only do so much. 

They can’t be everywhere at all times. That is why it is up to each of us to play our part. But, unfortunately, sometimes, we get in our way.

Don’t Let This List Be Your List

From Sharone Barr David’s fantastic book, Trust Your Canary: 

• We minimize the behavior and say that it isn’t that serious.
• We think that the behavior is engrained in the culture and, therefore, can’t be changed.
• We convince ourselves that things will sort themselves out
• We tell ourselves it’s always been like this
• We convince ourselves that regardless of how bad things are, they are a whole lot better than your last workplace.
• You are reticent to interfere, concerned for what else you will uncover
• You convince yourself you are too busy right at this moment to take on anything more in your life
• We tell ourselves that the person behaving rudely or disrespectfully is too powerful for us to take on.

Recognize any of those reasons?

Of course, you do.

They may not be excuses that you have said yourself, but you will be aware of incidents where you did hear it said.

Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did. 

We Are All Responsible For Our Workplace Culture. Now, all we have to do is go and do is live up to that responsibility, and we can do that by how we show up at work and treat each other.