All for one and one for all? Why team spirit at work matters

Dealing with people for any reason can be tricky, so how about dealing with the same people on a daily basis? Especially people you have not chosen to deal with. Especially people who might not want to deal with you and in the worst case are not afraid to show it.

For the dream to work, teamwork needs to work. If there is no cooperation, or it just doesn’t work very well, how can the results be great or the best they can be? For some reason, there is some kind of grey area in the middle. How often do we read or hear examples of bullying, harassment, favouritism etc.? And those are only the stories that surface so most likely the tip of the iceberg. For some of those companies, the dream seems to work ok without the team getting along that well, which is probably why things don’t change. Still, that doesn’t explain how or why it even starts.

A lot of people are natural energy savers when it comes to socialising at work. They tend to look around who is a beneficial friend, and who is not, and then play accordingly. It can work pretty well, as who doesn’t like being liked? If you make friends in the right places the payout can be pretty good.

But wait a minute? Aren’t there HR policies and other tools to make sure everything is done according to the rules and without prejudice/favouritism/discrimination when it comes to hiring and promoting? As long as these are dealt with by people - HR people are only humans too - the results from a complaint or a careful enquiry can bring a very different kind of response than you would expect. Once upon a time, I was telling my tired colleague to speak with HR when she had to keep doing her lazy colleague’s work too, but when she did, instead of getting support she was the one getting told off. And do you remember for example Uber a few years ago?

Maybe AI can bring a solution for this someday, we’ll see. An even bigger problem is if no one is creating these policies or just doesn’t do it very well. In an organisation where the top level doesn’t care about integrity, things can be built on shaky ground and then it is a matter of time before things crumble down. Like Uber, other companies too have paid millions in fines for misconduct. Not the best use of anyone’s profits perhaps?

Apart from selective friends, another thing people can be selective with is respect level for colleagues based on the job title. If someone is considered to be in a low position why bother with them? They can’t be very smart if they are in that job, right? Funnily enough, when that colleague gets promoted to the same team they all of a sudden have grown a brain and are not that bad company after all. The same problem applies to staff that are outsourced. Same job, and the same title, but they are still “outsiders” and not worth giving time to. If coworkers can be tiered by job title, how about asking a few cleaners how they feel they are treated? Surely everyone prefers working in an office that is clean and tidy so why is it not seen as an essential job to make sure that happens? It won’t hurt anyone to say hi to their cleaners and maybe even get to know something about them.

”You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Some people think: “But character won’t pay my rent/boat/summer house etc.”. No, it won’t, but it also doesn’t pay off to be like the person who was looked down on by the person who got promoted over them and treated them like poo until the situation reversed again. Awwwkward. That won’t be a good place to be in and there is no guarantee it wouldn’t happen to someone else. Especially if that person is too stuck in their ego to notice what’s going on around them. Teamwork is more likely to bring amazing results and those can pay for the rent/boat/summer house.

Companies that understand the value of teamwork and make an effort in building a team spirit, a work family, and an “us”, can achieve big things, and those are more likely to be lasting big things. Here are some examples of companies showing you don’t need to choose between profit and healthy company culture from Business Insider and Entrepreneur. For those aiming for greatness, it makes sense to start with the greatness within. If you are hiring the best talent, it makes sense to enable them to be their best selves so that they can help your company to become the best it can be.