Today’s khutbah was about work culture, which is not something you expect to hear from the mimbar, and it has been on my mind since. It talked about safety in the workplace, looking after mental health, speaking to each other politely and clearly, getting along with colleagues, and not letting work eat into our health. Productivity matters, it said, but it should not come at that price. It also told us plainly to stop blaming each other and running each other down.
Someone I know had a rough week at work because of a boss who talks down to people. The advice they got was the usual: sabar saja… it will pass. I understand that, and sometimes there is nothing else to do. But it bothered me that the only person being asked to change anything was the one with the least say.
I think that is part of our mindset problem. When an office is unhappy, we shrug and call it the boss’s character, or say the staff are too sensitive. We rarely ask what the place is teaching people to put up with.
I lead a team myself, so I listened to it as a set of questions for me first. Do my people feel safe telling me when something has gone wrong? When I correct someone, who is standing nearby? Then there was the point about balance, which landed closer to home. I am usually the first one in and the last one out. Nobody has ever been asked to keep the same hours, but they can see mine, and I doubt it tells them it is fine to leave on time. I suspect the people who work for me would give a more useful answer than I would.
The khutbah was not only for bosses, though. It said a healthy workplace starts with us, and it meant all of us. Gossip and blaming are just as easy to carry in from a desk at the back of the room. A workplace turns out the way it does because of small things, what gets said at the pantry and what gets left unsaid in the meeting.
So my job next week is simple. Ask my team what it is really like to work here, then keep my mouth shut and listen.