Just having a workplace would be a boost to many people's way of life whatever the culture that exists there. Also it does annoy me - a person without a job - when, as a customer, I know I would have a much better attitude and work a lot harder than that smug, lazy person behind the desk or counter who is supposed to be helping me and couldn't care less.

You repel your readers so in effect this is true. In my workplace people who cant accept changes go. And just like you cant handle the Jets its about time you went. In my work place hundreds of kids are happy, they laugh, they're safe and are the future....Yes i work at the Jets and you're not welcome!

Jeff, I recently worked for Sanitarium Health Foods and it was refreshing to work in a workplace where no one swears.

After a while, many people tend to view the world through the prism of their workplace, customers become "the other" and any departure from the norm is met with resistance. An annual holiday up north is meant to recharge the worker but rarely delivers. Work culture is changing and you can either keep up or miss the boat. Some will, some won't.

The culture of an organisation is a very complex thing, influenced by the history of the organisation, the industry, the people in the place, and, importantly, by the management. management = Board + senior management team. What the senior management team deems to be important, and actually monitors / measures, will be emphasised throughout the organisation. For example, in big US merchant banks (until recently!), profit and return on equity were emphasised over everything else. So staff were taking massive financial risks, working 20 hours every day, and receiving huge bonuses linked to profit made. In other organisations (eg Richard branson's Virgin group), employee welfare, morale and wellbeing are at the top of the list, on the assumption that happy staff = happy customers = profit. So far that seems to work. Unfortunately, many people in senior management have little understanding (or interest) in the human factors of organisation ~ they are typically interested in the clinical business itself. Mivong into the coming decade(s), successful businesses will have to be much better at mnanaging culture : the "Gen Y" employee of the future is a different beast, wit very different expectations of work, career and life in general. Dinosaurs will be exstinct :)

Well Jeff... you have been working in a hostile environment for the last 2 days !! With the abuse you have been getting from the people that work for the Jets... Is this a sign of a disgrunted employee base ?? What you wrote yesterday is true & it looks like the ones that work for them are the abusive ones.... Is this a case of Monkey See, Monkey Do !! Donald....Any Jets employee that is giving Jeff a mouthful.. Pull your heads in your making yourselfs look pretty ordinary & yesterdays story has brought it out big time !!

The two most important things about a workplace culture are the attitude of your co-workers, and whether you see the managers as being supportive or as an obstacle to be overcome. The latter very much affects the former. At my previous job, the managers were a mixed bag, but they all at least stayed out of the way and let us do our jobs. At my present job, the management culture is overly bureaucratic and stifles productivity with excessive and arbitrary rules. Even the most minor expenditure needs to be signed off on by three or four people, and God help you if you need to travel for work - you'll spend the next month trying to recoup your expenses. But the biggest issue is the OH&S officer. She spends the entire day prowling the offices and looking for new and innovative ways to disrupt people. Her pet peeve at the moment is bicycles... she seems to change the rules about where they can be left every week, and takes great pleasure in berating anyone who fails to keep up with the changes to the rules.

Donald you may find yourself out of work soon. 1. it appears you make unsubstantiated judgements i.e. (comment you made to Jeff) "you repel your readers" - well it seems that plenty of people are still reading and responding. obviously not repulsed!!! 2. you are unable to move on i.e. this is a new topic, cant you let go of the past? and 3. lastly, by stating where you work you have inextricably linked your employer with your point of view. I'll bet that some of your co-workers dont find you to be a very nice person to be around if your sort of comments and ill founded judgements are to serve as illustrations of your personality. As you condone bad language I can only imagine the way you speak to or about your co-workers.

I have worked in a range of small and huge organisations. THE best, most effective and worthwhile culture was in a major international finance corporation in melbourne. That firm is behind most store 'charge cards' and a lot of other consumer credit services. Basically, they have a "no bozos" rule to hiring. They only hire smart, well educated people who can do the job. AND - this is the cool bit - they PLAN to fire the worst performers each year. So there is (a) constant but subtle 'pressure' to perform well, and (b) the confidence of knowing that underperformers will be punted. In many organisations, underperformers are kept around, because nobody in management has the ability, confidence , balls (or gives a sh*t) to get rid of them. A terribly demoralizing thing is to be working in a place where a high performer and a low performer are treated similarly.

Most organisations simply end up with a management team that lacks the real ability / wherewithal to skilfully manage an organisation. Most 'managers' are simply people that have worked their way through an organisation (sometimes promoted to a position above their level of competence?) because they can, not because they should. it does take skill to recognise that the 'business' and the 'organisation' are two very different things (obviously connected). The health of the 'business' is observed in the financial statements. The health of the 'organisation' is observed (less readily) by looking at the culture. Often not a pretty thing to behold.......