A workplace can be a place of tension, stress, and compartmentalised thinking. Or it can be place of openness, sharing, and understanding, especially when the holidays roll around. The secret? Tolerance and good humour. Oh, and chocolate helps, too. By Dave Luis
We’re a pretty diverse group of around 300 in our office. Christians, Muslims and Jewish employees working alongside atheists, agnostics, spiritualists, and the odd Wiccan Earth Mother.
This all has the potential to make celebrating religious holidays like Easter at the office a little…delicate. We’ve all read that humourous (and thankfully fictitious!) email thread from the flustered HR director, trying and failing to accommodate everyone’s religious, spiritual and dietary preferences for the company Christmas lunch.
In a diverse group like ours, there is a very real chance of someone making an embarrassing gaffe, not unlike that beleaguered HR director.
Yet we celebrate the traditional holidays like Easter and Christmas, and there isn’t one iota of dissent or any uncomfortable vibe. The whole office gets in on the act and we have a lot of fun decorating our desks and meeting rooms and showering each other with well wishes, good tidings and more chocolate than is strictly good for productivity.
But it hasn’t always been like this for me. I’ve worked at Dickensian companies where management would rather throw themselves on sacrificial swords than allow a decorative ribbon or delicious Lindt bunny anywhere near the office.
This got me wondering as the Easter holidays approach. What is it about the company I now work for that makes it different? What is the magic that lets it all happen without fuss or offence? Is it the management team? Is it the employees? On reflection, it’s a symbiosis of both, plus how we mark the celebrations themselves.
Our management team is accessible. Our leaders work hard, and they respect us for the jobs we do and the work we deliver. They’re frequently on the floor, walking and talking to the team. They’re visible, supportive and human. This earns them healthy respect – not the fear-ridden, ivory tower respect that is shallow and brittle. My boss treats me like an expert in my field, not like an inexperienced noob.
The effect this has on us is that we feel respected, trusted and proud to be on the team. People greet one another as they walk across the massive open-plan floor . We know each other’s names, we talk about sports, our favourite teams, what the kids did at school. Knowing and engaging each other makes us feel like one big team, one big family – not just a room of strangers working side by side.
It also means we can be trusted to celebrate a holiday without feeling threatened if it is not part of our particular culture, and we treat our team mates with respect if we know they don’t celebrate Easter at home.
Finally, it’s how we celebrate the day. Whether it’s Easter, Christmas, Valentine’s Day or the cricket World Cup semi-final, the day is all about the people. It’s about sharing a message of love, kindness, good humour and smiles.
Strip out the names, cultures and religious observances, and what’s left? Sharing. Human kindness. Compassion. Generosity. That’s what makes it work. Oh – and chocolate! Don’t forget the chocolate! A good Lindt bunny has amazing powers to connect people.
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