There aren’t enough toilets in our building. Our floor (the first) has two, and the second floor has just one. When the tutorials on the ground floor break for coffee or lunch, our hallway fills up with people queuing right outside our office doors, which we keep open so we can easily pop in on each other. Naturally, these queues are never quiet; people chat and make calls. But so far, a friendly request for quiet has always worked wonders.
Innocent
Of course, we’re not entirely innocent either. We chat and laugh by the coffee machine and have work conversations in doorways. Sometimes we even shout from one office to another. Combine that with the less-than-ideal acoustics on the first floor of Lenculenstraat 14, and it’s no surprise that office etiquette came up in a recent meeting. Could we please keep our voices down in the kitchenette? And if we need to discuss something, could we do it inside our offices instead of half-standing in the hallway? We all promised to do better. But not even an hour after that meeting, I caught myself brainstorming out loud in an office doorway. Whoops. Old habits die hard. I promised to do better, again.
Etiquette
Speaking of office etiquette, Volkskrant Magazine recently (14 September 2024) devoted several pages to the topic. They covered a whole range of issues, from saying good morning at work (which we do) to not jumping the queue for the coffee machine (this doesn’t happen in our office), and also: “Women and juniors aren’t waitresses.” It’s one of the first things we tell any new junior journalist – you don’t have to get coffee for anyone but yourself. As for the women in the office, they certainly don’t let themselves be treated like coffee fetchers. That said, I have noticed that they tend to be just a bit quicker than the men to empty the dishwasher or cut and serve the vlaai when we have an office treat.
Constructive criticism
Providing constructive criticism on each other’s work – some prefer to call it feedback – is part of daily office life for us. No article, whether written by a junior journalist or the editor-in-chief, gets published online or in print without being reviewed by someone else first. There’s almost always something to improve. You’ve got to be able to handle that. We do, however, aim to give feedback calmly and fairly. This is essential; being needlessly blunt doesn’t help anyone and only harms workplace relationships. And if you can’t explain why a colleague should make a change, it doesn’t need changing; it’s likely just a matter of taste.
Feeling unsafe
From experience, I know that criticism can make people feel uncomfortable. But I’m glad to say that I’ve never seen anyone in our office confuse the discomfort of criticism (number 13 on Volkskrant Magazine’s list) with feeling unsafe. After all, being uncomfortable is not the same as being unsafe.