I never did think working from home would properly catch on. A place of work as a sociable environment is much more condusive to job satisfaction. At the same time that home-working became viable because people valued the flexibility and and so forth, so came the promotion of Team Building and motivational exercises. This meant that not only were people rubbing along side each other in the office on a daily basis but they were actually electing to get together and ‘do stuff’ outside the office maybe even out of hours.
What often unites staff in their day to day social interaction is a grumbling dissatisfaction with those in personnel, or as it more often referred to nowadays, Human Resources Department. ‘What do they actually do?’ is a common cry. ‘All this getting in our hair with their tick boxes and little forms!’. What is often not recognised is how they are almost in a parental role, spending their time sorting out little squabbles almost like the dinner ladies in the school playground. I moved into personnel management whilst working for a local firm of solicitors. I was unqualified to do so, other than that I had a natural desire to smooth over conflict wherever I was – at home or at work – and was kind of guided into the role as the firm expanded and the need arose for someone to be responsible when the coffee machine ran out.
It was then I found that part of my role was to become a ‘best friend’. You know the one, the person you know in your life who has the nerve to tell you how it is and not just what you want to hear. I was required to be ‘honest’ with individual members of staff for the sake of the greater good. I had to broach subjects that were too uncomfortable to mention for fear of offence amongst colleagues.
Our office junior was one particular target, she was an unfortunate young lady who suffered from excessive sweating. She stood for long hours by the photo-copier quietly glowing and infusing her area of the office with gentle wafts of body odour. I was elected to broach the general subject of personal hygiene with her. My approach was to recommend various beauty products that I favoured and I made her a gift of a prettily packaged deodorant.
It remained unwrapped in her drawer to be discovered when she left a few weeks later.