It’s not often last night’s telly has a tinge of HR added in for good measure but that’s what happened with “Very British Problems” on Channel4. A show devoted to the things us British battle with in our little daily lives.
Problems such as how to shake hands and how we deal with queuing has been highlights of the series so far. But last night’s episode looked at the workplace and what problems we face in it…
Not having the slightest interest in getting to know your colleagues
The program described how the French keep a very formal workplace, where some British employers have “work away days” or “team building sessions”. Grace Dent described sitting for 4 days in Wales describing why you don’t like a person can be a recipe for disaster concluding it “wasn’t British it was in fact Anti British”
Asking if anybody wants a tea and hoping they don’t
With many of the celebrities asked agreeing not making a round of tea is akin to being a sackable offence, it’s hard to keep that 165 million cups of tea that we drink everyday flowing in the workplace so some of us have systems and ways to make this easier but that may in fact make the whole matter more complicated. Some workplaces have a tea and Coffee club, others have rotas and other have an Ad Hoc system that just seems to work, what works for you?
The Office Party
A uniquely British affair which can baffle some countries, An unfortunate member of staff (Jane let’s say) ends up doing something which will forever be known as “Doing a Jane” and this action needs no further explanation, we must never talk about it again!
Did you know?
Did you know Christmas Hangovers Recovery time cost the British Economy £100 million pounds per year? One way to monitor and solve this would be to have a Time and Attendance system and then be able to see the lack of attendance after the Christmas Party and be able to work out how much that is costing your business vs how much you save having the party on a weekday for example. Of course this works all year round for various applications in business and is great for solving wider attendance issues in your business.
How would you solve the rest?
Let us know in the comments below how your company approaches the team building exercise / session problem what you find the most successful? (remembering that employees are failing to attend team building session new research has found) and is it possible to ever solve making the office tea? Let us know below.
