Ideal Workplace Environment

Ethel_Cook

What would you rather have? A workplace where you are encouraged to compete with one another or what about an office where you generally work in a team to meet your targets?

butter52

Team and friendliness. I spend a third or more of my day with those people, the last thing I want is competition.

Fifi.G

I love an individual work place first ane foremost. That does not mean competition or lack of team work but more along the lines of leave me alone, I know how to do my job. Other than that, I like team & friendly. When training new people on our job we do encourage them to try to beat the other employees to the phone, radio or keyboard. It's not for the saie of being competitive. There are no promotions, winners or losers. It simply takes their mind off the sometimes harsh nature of the job (911) and helps put a fun spin on it that keeps them from being too terrified to answer the phone. It also helps them speed up their reaction time which is needed when it comes to entering units on calls.

Starmie

I'm a nurse so have always worked in a team environment, I really can't imagine working in a competitive one, I think I'd hate it.

jeepcurlygurl

I've always worked on my own so neither of these apply to me, but I would hate a competitive workplace. Sounds stressful and awful.

eveum

I barely have any work experience, just 3 months in a job last year and 2 months in my current job. But the two are already drastically different in terms of work environment.

My job last year was production work, in a company with about 30 employees. They had a system where individuals were timed in respect with how long it took for them to complete a certain job. Everyone was then on a computer leader-board in the main room. I have no problem with creating and working to targets, but the environment was very competitive, to the point where the more experienced staff were deliberately cutting corners and exploiting the system to get better times. While newbies like me were being brought into the office one month in for reviews and told we were at the bottom and not doing well enough. While outside of this my other manager had told me he had definitely seen a huge improvement in my work. I received mixed messages and I remember getting very upset one time.

This place has a very high staff turnover rate, after I left and returned to being unemployed I saw about 80% of the people who joined when or a little after I did back at the job-centre as well. It was all minimum wage forced/coerced overtime ******** and I hated it. The staff were very *****y, talked about people behind their back constantly and there was no feeling of teamwork or unity at all.

Now I am in a small home office with two other people and it feels much better, we are all a team and although I am inexperienced I am made to feel a part of the success of the company.

jeepcurlygurl

^eveum, that sounds like it was hell on earth and a terrible work environment.

Lotsawaves

Working as a team. Just remember that there are those who don't feel the same way. They can really screw the team for their own benefit.

spiderlashes5000

I prefer to work alone doing my own thing, making money for myself. I'm more motivated that way and more engaged bc I picked the industry and type of work that appeals to me.

Team work is unappealing bc I rarely have the same vision as others I would happen to get grouped with. And its usually the person with the biggest mouth or the biggest title who ultimately determines the direction. And when I don't feel my input matters is exactly when I disengage.

Is the competitive environment just like sales? That's not sooooooo bad. If you don't perform well, you just don't make as much money but no one is mad at you, as long as you hit your base quota. I did telemarketing for three companies while in college and I totally rocked it a few times.

I hope to start selling real estate soon. That's a good mix of independent, competitive and team.

Layali

I also prefer to work alone and think competition plays a role in either scenario and is a natural part of the workplace. It's not a bad thing. I think competition often drives us to be our best selves and good employees often force other to step up their game. A competitive work environment doesn't necessarily translate into a hostile one.

That said, I absolutely hated working on teams where I was clearly carrying the load and was the highest performer, but not getting individual recognition for it, because of the team-centric attitude. OR, alternatively, having lazier team members drag the team down and being collectively berated for it. That is not fun!

spiderlashes5000

Layali wrote: »

A competitive work environment doesn't necessarily translate into a hostile one.

Right. I'm curious what the OP had in mind by "competitive." My experience with competition in the workplace just refers to earning some kind of incentives, usually cash, when you perform better than average. Or if you work for yourself, as a model or actress or writer or artist or individual-sport athlete, etc., where your career is self directed and you will sink or swim based on your own talents.

I'm trying to visualize a physical worksite where employees are actually competing with each other.:?:

curlyprincess1

Me working from home.

DaniGirl88

I've worked in both environments. I would choose the team environment over and over again. I don't need the added stress of competition. That's for sure!

Blueblood

spiderlashes5000 wrote: »

Right. I'm curious what the OP had in mind by "competitive." My experience with competition in the workplace just refers to earning some kind of incentives, usually cash, when you perform better than average. Or if you work for yourself, as a model or actress or writer or artist or individual-sport athlete, etc., where your career is self directed and you will sink or swim based on your own talents.

I'm trying to visualize a physical worksite where employees are actually competing with each other.:?:

I thought it meant some of the environments I ended up working in when I started working.

When I started working I was doing various temp jobs.

One company still had a typing pool. The typists use to compete to complete the most pieces of work then get paid more for doing so. They had to stop the typists doing this because the company was getting sued as a couple of the typists had RSI. I remember that company because of the typing pool. Every other company including the government had got rid of theirs about 15 years before plus they were using old technology from 10 years ago even at the end of the 20th Century.

In another company which was a call centre, they use to have a board listing who had answered/made the most calls or most sales that week, depending on the teams function. They told staff who worked on the phones off like they were naughty school children but in front of everyone. This included if they didn't make enough calls/sales or went to toilet too long. Unsurprisingly they had a high turnover even though they paid more than the other call centres around.

Now I work in teams of various sizes. I am normally solely responsible for a piece of the project but I have to work with others, who normally have a different skill set, to get it done. The teams aren't competitive as we each tend to have different skills. Also due to working in technology the issue isn't people slacking but working too much.

Ethel_Cook

Starmie wrote: »

I'm a nurse so have always worked in a team environment, I really can't imagine working in a competitive one, I think I'd hate it.

My thoughts exactly! In my current company, they are doing stack ranking. We have a board at the end of the hallway with our names on in. Each week it is updated depending on the # of up sells or cross sells we are able to make. I used to work for parachutetechs - if you know the industry, you'll know it is also very competitive - but we did not have stack ranking. For me, this strategy can be very humiliating. I'm curious to know if this works for anyone and it is just not motivating for me?

DinaWestley

Hi, everyone:) in my own view, there's no really a perfect or ideal workplace environment. There will always be challenges and competitions along the way. However, this will help us grow and learn more. We just have to be determined in anything we appreciate doing and I believe everything will soon fall into place.

Starmie

Ethel_Cook wrote: »

Starmie wrote: »

I'm a nurse so have always worked in a team environment, I really can't imagine working in a competitive one, I think I'd hate it.

My thoughts exactly! In my current company, they are doing stack ranking. We have a board at the end of the hallway with our names on in. Each week it is updated depending on the # of up sells or cross sells we are able to make. I used to work for parachutetechs - if you know the industry, you'll know it is also very competitive - but we did not have stack ranking. For me, this strategy can be very humiliating. I'm curious to know if this works for anyone and it is just not motivating for me?

I think this sounds dreadful and agree it can make for humiliation for some. I suppose it could work from a management point of view as I guess workers won't want to be at the bottom and productivity would rise, but then I wonder if it would be at the back of the 'leaders' minds that their success has meant others are 'failing' and they're somehow responsible for that. I would feel guilty in that position.