Office Quandries
Peter Rachleff
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PUNCHING OUT page 2 of 2 | |||||
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Weekly Answers to Office Quandries |
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Professor Peter Rachleff |
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Like any other worker in any other workplace, you need to look for
allies.
From what you describe, I assume there must be other staff members who
are
experiencing the same sort of injustices that you are. Reach out to them.
Stop focussing on your immediate boss and put more effort into connecting
with the women and men who are your peers. Start to collect stories
about
all of your experiences and tie them into a pattern. You might not find
solutions right away, but you'll find the best coping strategy there
is -- sharing your problems and realizing that they are not yours alone,
but are endemic to your workplace.
At the same time, you will discover that what you all share is not merely negative. You all came to work in this non-profit because you believed in what it does, the services it provides, the purposes for which it was created. As you share conversation and build community, you will interweave the positive and the negative. Chances are that the unhealthy dynamics in the office are having a counter-productive impact on the entire agency's work. And so within your new group process you will find ways to improve your delivery of services by improving your work environment. You might even discover that unionizing is a way to institutionalize the sort of voice you need to have about your non-profit, from bottom to top. Many other women and men have discovered this in the last decade. |
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