Corporate Culture

As you may recall I was laid off from my old job in January of 2008 and I started a new job in March. This job is a lot different than my last. More stressful and high profile for sure, but with more interesting projects (which are mine to manage.) The corporate structure and culture is different too. Political correctness, environmental friendliness and the encouragement of diversity all get a lot of lip service, and even some actualization!

It seems like I'm constantly being bombarded with not only work, but company policies which seem to be manufactured and modified continuously from somewhere deep within the corporate machine.

One of my favorite things in the office is when opposing ideas are put out right next to each other. For example, recently there was a big push toward improving building security recently. Employees were directed to display their work IDs prominently at all times and not to hold the door for people to prevent unauthorized persons from gaining entry. The new policy is prominently posted everywhere, on doors, in the break rooms, and on posters in the copy rooms.

Another highly publicized campaign around the office at the same time was one which talked about assisting people with disabilities in the office. There was a webcast, handouts with tips about how to treat the disabled and of course more posters.

So we were left with two posters side by side plastered throughout the office.
The poster on the right shows a polite employee holding the door for a coworker using crutches (but still able to hold his briefcase!) with the caption "Who needs help getting in the door? Everyone!" and a blurb about how we all need help at times, so be nice to the disabled.
The poster on the left warns us never to hold the door for anyone, and that security is everyone's responsibility!

Oddly it doesn't seem to bother anyone but me.