The office can be a place of camaraderie and production – unless it goes bad.
Small irritations can escalate into major upsets and turf wars. My encouragement: Stay in front of it.
Here is a checklist of topics for you and your team to discuss, and help you develop policy. In addition, have an attorney peruse your employee manual once you have assembled your policies, to make sure you are in compliance with all labor and privacy laws and you are not discriminatory in any way.
1. Start with clean. You can’t talk to team members about your high standards when every surface is cluttered with boxes and stacks of paper.
• Start with your desk. Take half a day and move everything out of your office. Move fast and when in doubt, throw it out. Enlist the neatnik in the office to help you.
• Then, scrub surfaces and paint the walls. Use some color. Think Spartan and efficient, not necessarily glamorous.
• As you replace items in your office, consider the functionality of the space. Projects can be in hanging folders in a near-to-you file cabinet or drawer. Line up books and binders on shelves. Use corkboards and dry erase boards purposefully. Update information daily or weekly. Don’t pin or tape stuff directly to walls.
• Have a sacred space to display family pictures, achievements and items of sentimental value.
• Repeat with each team member’s area.
• Establish a rotation of cleaning duties, and provide supplies to clean up after yourself in the bathroom. Yep, create a procedure. Include “no drips or specks” after each use.
• Commit to a professional cleaning service once a week for the deep cleaning of bathrooms, floors and kitchen area.
2. Create workable personal phone and Internet guidelines. Think you are going to keep employees from texting? Not likely.
• Offense is your best defense here. Create an engaging workplace with a clear understanding of what needs to be done. Clarify duties and update the organizational chart and the position descriptions.
• There will be inevitable downtime, when business is slow and the phone isn’t ringing. Assign intermittent projects for each team member. Delegate, follow up with focused meetings and grant project work time to make sure things get done.
• Then, if you have time to check your phone, so be it. You are setting yourself up to fail if you think your employees are not going to text or check Facebook during the workday. You may have guidelines in terms of what one may or may not post regarding work.
• That said, enlist the most social of your office crew to do your company social media posting. The employee can take pictures and super short videos bragging on team members or customers (get their written or emailed permission).
3. The No. 1 creator of office discord: the thermostat. Too hot, too cold … office weather conditions are never just right for everyone.
• Fix the heating and cooling system. If someone in your office is wearing a parka and gloves at their desk, I’m talking to you.
• Uniform options can include layers. That way, team members can be in uniform and bundle up or peel down.
• Determine a comfortable office temp and keep to it. Every now and then, crown a “Thermostat Tsar,” and let them adjust as they choose.
• Avoid the “don’t mess with it” overkill solution.
Have a candid conversation with the office team about these hot topics. Listen to their concerns and suggestions. Explore options together. Then, as the owner of the company, make the decision about your policies and procedures.
Ellen Rohr is an author and business consultant who helps entrepreneurs start, fix and grow their businesses. She conducts a monthly webinar, and her books include “Where Did the Money Go?” and “The Bare Bones Weekend Biz Plan.” She can be reached at
ellen@barebonesbiz.com.
