For holidays, make your office a little more like Whoville

Published 1:30 am Sunday, December 11, 2016

By Rex Huppke

Chicago Tribune

We have arrived at the holiday season, a time when workplace thoughts drift to the trappings of materialism.

Many of us are pondering office gifts, client gifts, secret Santas, gifts for bosses (fruitcakes for bad bosses) and knickknacks for kind co-workers.

Before you start shopping, let me share these words from the always wise Dr. Seuss, relating to the Grinch’s realization about the Whos down in Whoville:

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!”

Replace “Grinch” with “the boss” and “Christmas” with a more inclusive “the holidays” and you have something people in workplaces everywhere should consider.

We all can survive without another coffee mug. Or a Starbucks gift card. Or even a thoughtful-but-reasonably-priced present from a boss or co-worker.

What we really want at work — even if we refuse to admit it — is some kindness. Some attention. A little feedback that lets us know we’re doing something right.

My suggestion this year is that rather than spend time shopping for gifts for employees or bosses or co-workers, we consider some gestures of holiday kindness:

Cancel some meetings. There are too many (expletive that doesn’t conform to the holiday spirit) meetings. I’ve warned you over and over that most meetings are unnecessary, yet you schedule them like there’s a prize for whoever calls the most. Offer employees get-out-of-a-meeting-free cards they can use when they feel their presence is truly unnecessary. Sounds cheesy, yes, but showing people you trust them to use their time wisely carries some weight.

Or expand that gift by promising a more careful approach to meetings in the new year. That’s simple: Each time you think you need to call a meeting, assume you’re wrong. Then ask yourself these questions: Can I just do this via email or a conference call? Who absolutely has to be there? What is the key objective of this meeting and how can we get in and out as quickly as possible?

That’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Spend 10 minutes with each person who reports to you. Too tall an order? I don’t think so. Say you have 12 people under you. That’s only about two hours of your time. Then you tell those people to spend 10 minutes with each person they supervise, and so on.

This isn’t a performance review and it shouldn’t be canned conversation. Ask how they’re doing. Show that you give a darn.

It’s not much and doesn’t have to be painful or awkward. We’re all moving so fast that we rarely get a moment to sit one-on-one and check in with a supervisor. People value that opportunity.

Send a co-worker a note. We don’t appreciate each other as much as we should. When someone does something well, we offer a quick “nice work” or a pat on the back, but rarely do we acknowledge a colleague’s overall goodness. Instead of buying the co-worker a desktop Zen gardens in a box, write a nice email and explain, with specifics, why you value him or her.

Pledge to improve something about yourself. Humility matters and can bring people together. Instead of an officewide secret Santa, consider asking everyone to commit to one item of self-improvement.

This is best if it comes from the top. A leader willing to admit to a fault and pledge to work on it is a leader giving permission to others to do the same.

Do something good for others. Our office holiday gatherings often look inward. That’s not necessarily bad, but reaching out to people beyond the office can unite workers in unexpected ways.

Instead of a potluck, ask people to bring in food and then form teams to deliver it to pantries or directly to people in need. (Finding those families isn’t hard. Call a church or a community social worker. They’ll know where help is needed.) Or send everyone to volunteer at a soup kitchen, visit kids in the hospital or help out at a senior center.

These are true gifts. They aren’t things you receive and then force a smile. They don’t get stuffed away in a drawer and forgotten about.

— Chicago Tribune