Now a new study is here to swipe its finger across our dusty office desks by telling us how cleaning the office coffee pot might just fill our cup of job security to the brim!
A new academic study published online in the journal Human Resource Management explores our "employee citizenship" behaviors at work. As in, "Wow, the break room microwave is completely disgusting and I can't take it anymore, so I'll be the brave one to clean it out!" If you work with this employee, then please take the time to thank her. (And if Sandberg's article is accurate, then chances are good that it's probably a "her" in many offices.)
We feel like a team player, but we might question ourselves as we reach for a handful of damp paper towels to clean the dirty break room microwave:
Will taking on this menial task make me look somehow less professional? Am I setting a bad precedent as the one who always performs this task from now on? Will volunteering for trivial office tidying "projects," or generally volunteering to go outside my job description, hurt my future chances of promotion?
Well, it might not hurt us as much as we think, according to the new study. Instead of hurting us, taking one for the team might send the message that we're willing to do what it takes to keep everything on track for the greater good.
This task isn't in our job description, but nobody else in the office is willing to take it on, so here we are, paper towels in hand, furiously scrubbing refried beans from the top right corner of the microwave as our impatient co-worker stands nearby with bean burrito in hand waiting to use said microwave. Well, don't just stand there, hand us another damp paper towel and cover your burrito as you're heating it!
The sparkling break room microwave has never looked better, and taking it on may benefit us in the long run on the job. According to an article in today's Washington Post:
"There's a choice we make about how to spend our time at work," [researcher Chris Zatzick] said. Although performance may matter most, "having a good attitude and being a good 'citizen' can protect you as well."So it takes a village to raise a workplace, or something like that. We might just help our careers -- and possibly insulate ourselves from future layoffs -- by pitching in, staying late, volunteering, and, yes, willingly taking on the most unheralded of office tasks. Stepping it up as a good "office citizen" might just provide a protective effect. It is in our job description sometimes after all, but only at strategic, key points along the way!
Okay, I can already hear the commentary undertow. Not true, I once had a job where I helped out way more than I should have and I was a terrific team player every day, and they promoted my peer instead! Then I was one of the first to get let go as soon as they initiated layoffs! I hurt myself by helping out MORE than I should have in unheralded ways!
Perhaps you've steadily risen up the corporate ladder to find that you're a female senior manager still singled out to perform grunt work such as fetching new clients a cup of coffee. And don't forget the cream and sugar! Grr.
Personally, I admire anyone, man or woman, who steps up to take on a menial office task everyone else refuses to do even when they had a hand in creating the mess (see dirty office microwave example). We need more village-minded employees in today's self-absorbed, me-centric world, not fewer. CEOs can enhance their credibility with employees by getting their hands dirty, too. Pitching in by putting more paper in the printer shows that leadership isn't above it all, and is in touch instead of checked out.
It's a complicated topic -- nearly as complicated as figuring out which co-worker left a stack of moldy, unlabeled Tupperware containers in the disgusting, smelly break room fridge as we're cleaning it. (And if you're regularly stuck cleaning the office fridge, then you might suggest the company look into hiring a local cleaning company to clean it once per quarter.)
Smart managers will start a conversation around who is doing "office housework," and how these tasks could be spread more equitably between "busy" co-workers. Yes, this conversation represents pie-in-the-sky thinking that probably won't happen in many modern workplaces, but we can all dream, can't we? By the way, the office birthday cake is ready for pick up at the local bakery. I'll let you get to it, since no one else will.
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