Nicholas Craig column

Aug 26 2005 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

Do you work harder than the person you sit next to in your office? A report by Investors in People tells us that most employers and staff believe they do.

It appears that open plan offices have stoked up a smouldering resentment between colleagues that is growing, triffid-like, in the hothouse atmosphere of the workplace.

Nearly half of those employees questioned said they worked alongside someone who they thought was lazy but their managers did not do anything about it.

There's the rub. Staff can see who's playing solitaire, who's had five lengthy cups of coffee, and who's on the phone again to their boyfriend.

The boss, however, continues to appraise them positively, unaware of the effect their behaviour is having on mental health, ability to concentrate or even finish work on time.

If it wasn't for them, you would have the promotion, the flash new computer, the window seat and unbitten fingernails.

I can't say this affects me as much as those 1,000 employees questioned for the report.

My colleagues appear to be working conscientiously. It does, however, seem to be a sign of the times that we mistrust colleagues more, because we are only a desk divider away from them.

Cellular offices no doubt hid an equal multitude of sins, private telephone calls and shopping list compilations, but a certain privacy helped us appear to be terribly busy when work was not uppermost in our minds.

Being in open competition with office staff seems to bring out the worst in many otherwise assiduous workers.

It may spur some on to work harder and later, but many a person has gone home for the evening while deliberately draping a jacket over the back of their chair.

It is not a healthy attitude. Open plan is beginning to equal closed minds. It would be much better if we thought less about the grass being greener on the other side of the divider, and more about life outside the office.

The lazy ones will probably be exposed over time - and others may be working more efficiently than you.

Gandhi probably summed this up best when he said: "There are those who do the work and those who take the credit. I try to be in the first group, there is less competition there." Apart from me, of course.

Nicholas Craig is a partner at Watson Burton LLP.