The good old fines meeting

Actually it’s not okay. Somehow this fines meeting culture has managed to penetrate corporate culture in South Africa and I’m horrified. In a social environment after a day’s work, an innocent evening’s drinks after work very easily degenerates into a college rugby tour style fines meeting. Even those people who are moderate drinkers are pressured into drinking shooters and to take their punishment as part of their acceptance to be in part of the in-group. The entire culture of the team can quickly morph into one that favours predominantly white male, sports tour jock like behaviour that completely lacks diversity and inclusion.

The worst part of it for me is that those involved are completely unaware of their impact on other people. I remember as a university student we had an acquaintance who was awarded a prize at one such event, for the person most likely to commit suicide. His token award was a pack of rat poison. We all found this episode funny as this guy being quiet and reflective didn’t quite fit the extroverted boorish behaviour of the group. In hindsight what we did was disgusting and unacceptable and this just shows how far such behaviour can go. Thankfully he never did commit suicide although it scares me to think that with this sort of bullying we could have influenced him to do so.

So my plea today is that people really think about the social norms that are being built into organisational culture. Some people don’t want alcohol or to be embarrassed or to be fined for rules they don’t believe in or understand. The work environment or culture is not the right place to have the good old fines meeting. It’s not inclusive and it actually highlights bigger problems in your organization’s culture.