Friday, March 29, 2024

Why the Golden Rule Does Not Apply in the Workplace

Golden Rule
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As children, we all learned about the Golden Rule: treat others how we wish to be treated. It’s a concept that has helped human beings lead with kindness and maintain standards of social order for generations. 

However, the workplace may be one section of society where the Golden Rule simply does not apply. Kelly Robinson, CEO and Founder of PKRecruiting, strongly feels that the Golden Rule has no place in a work environment. 

“Everyone is different. You treat people the way they want to be treated,” she explains. While it may seem antithetical to everything we’ve ever learned about how to get along with others, following Robinson’s lead with a more personalized approach in the workplace can help organizations build more inclusive and functional cultures. 

Eliminating the “one-size-fits-all” approach

The problem with the Golden Rule in the workplace is that not everyone wants the same things out of their jobs. What one may value as a leader could be wildly different from what their coworkers or subordinates value. 

“A ‘one-size-fits-all’ mindset isn’t practical when considering what each employee wants to gain from their work,” says Robinson. “Every single employee is inherently different. They all perceive value and benefits in different ways because they have different lifestyles and needs.” 

Taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach with one’s employees can inadvertently cause organizations to alienate those employees, especially if they do not feel welcomed into a culture the organization has built around what they believe people should value. “People have a culture at the office and they believe it’s amazing,” says Robinson. “They may offer foosball, ping-pong, beer in the fridge, bean bags, Starbucks, and free lunch, or work-from-home benefits, but not everyone cares about these things.” 

Robinson advises that, instead of having employees come in and expect them to fit your culture, employers should meet people where they are.

Hiring for The Unculture™

Robinson has a favorite analogy to explain The Unculture™ theory of culture: “I like to use the Kool-Aid analogy. When a company says they have red Kool-Aid, and are very proud of their red Kool-Aid, they forget that some people don’t like red Kool-Aid. Some people would prefer blue, and others may not like Kool-Aid at all, and that’s what actually creates the culture.” 

At PKR, Robinson has developed an international team of employees — all of whom desire (and require) different things out of their jobs. Some of her employees, for instance, have children and need to take them to school in the morning, while others are taking care of aging parents or have sports practices and piano lessons that they want to attend. 

Likewise, although it may seem normal in the US to schedule training during employees’ daily lunch breaks, this practice can be viewed as unfair to those who are not used to traditional US workplace culture or who have different daily needs. Understanding those differences and needs is one reason why PKR closes at 2:00 pm on Fridays year-round, as giving her employees the autonomy and ability to self-manage their time and workload is an important part of Robinson’s The Unculture™ approach.  

The Unculture™ theory focuses less on the environment and more on the attributes of individuals within the work environment. “For me, I may hire people that don’t have a ton of experience, but I’m more focused on their core attributes and their aptitude,” says Robinson. 

Focusing on the best fit for positions over fitting into a predetermined set of values is how a company begins to redefine the entire idea of culture. Instead of telling employees what they need to prepare themselves to “come into,” companies can focus on meeting people’s unique needs when they find the right fit for particular roles. Taking The Unculture™ route will allow organizations to not only attract top talent, but also retain that talent.

Sustaining the theory of The Unculture™

Robinson is quick to admit that catering to the individual needs of everyone in one’s organization may not be possible once the organization exceeds a certain size. In small businesses, for example, The Unculture™ approach can work wonderfully, but leadership may need to tweak the approach as a business scales and brings on more employees. 

“With larger companies, I think it’s absolutely essential that leadership creates their own microcultures within their piece of the organization,” says Robinson, mentioning that once an organization reaches a certain size, the teams within the business need to focus on the individuals within their team. Different people in different departments will have different needs and requests; what values one team prioritizes may be of no interest to members of a different team. 

Once these microcultures are created, the larger organization can reap the benefits of The Unculture™” system just as smaller organizations do. “The larger you grow, the approach just needs to be more rigid,” says Robinson. “For example, we have unlimited time off in our organization, but if someone was taking advantage of it, that’s not okay — it can’t be ‘loosey-goosey’ — people need to always understand what their expectations are.”

While the Golden Rule may be a great standard for kids and adult friendships and other close relationships, the approach to getting along and being productive in the workplace needs to be different. Employees bring unique needs and wants into the workplace, and forcing them to adhere to a uniform culture could lead to some upset within the organization eventually. 

By following the example set by Robinson and her team at PKR, companies can better reach the right people and meet those people where they are. 

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