Company Threatens To Fire Employee If She Continues To Ignore Team Gatherings After Work, Sparks Debate On Work Culture

Some employees want to draw a clear distinction between their work and free time. TikTok user Sarah, who goes on the platform as @moodynomad333 is one of these people. But her views got her in big trouble at the last company she worked for.

In a now-viral video, the woman detailed her experience of working in the marketing department of an architecture firm. She focused on keeping strictly professional relationships with her co-workers.

"All the architects and designers would hang out, and I didn't want to hang out with them because we didn't have anything in common. Plus, they were all friends from school or from doing the same job, and I was just an outsider," she said.

However, the higher-ups didn't like this. In fact, their view of how the office should operate was so different from Sarah's that, eventually, they issued an ultimatum: either socialize with your co-workers or get fired.

Seeing it as an impossible lose-lose choice, Sarah simply packed her things and resigned.

This is a very nuanced topic. Many business advisors think it's actually in the best interest of both the company and its employees that they get familiar with one another. For example, according to Scott Ford, President of California Builder Services, a single-source consulting firm specializing in DRE Reports, HOA Budgets, and Reserve Studies, before 2020, questions such as, "What did you do this weekend?" and other small talk helped us learn more about our colleagues while we waited for our first cup of coffee to brew or gathered before a meeting. "From trivial topics to silly banter, these non-work discussions helped many of us feel bonded and connected with our colleagues throughout the workplace," he wrote in Forbes.

But since the pandemic, small talk has also migrated to email and various communication platforms.

However, Ford believes leaders must put forth the extra effort to ensure staff relationships retain the spontaneity and free flow of in-person interactions as much as possible. "From my perspective, allowing staff time to chat with one another and/or organizing opportunities for after-hour connections can result in a happier, more collaborative team," he said.

And supporters of this view have research to back it up. Turns out, small talk plays a significant role in our productivity at work. Last year, the Academy of Management found that casual banter in the office can be uplifting.

"I find it can also foster a sense of connection among co-workers," Ford added. "These connections are essential to effective teamwork and can help build loyalty with the company and peers."

However, just how much management should get involved in promoting employee socialization is debatable.

Russell F. Korte, a professor of human resource education in the College of Education at Illinois, thinks that rather than placing the onus of assimilating to a new work environment on the new hire, it's their co-workers who should bring the newcomer on board and ease their transition to the team.

"There's a huge burden on the workgroup for the socialization and ultimate success of the new hire," Korte said.

"Everybody thinks it's the responsibility of the new person to fit in when it's actually a mutually-constituted relationship between the workgroup and the new hire."

Korte's study, published in recent issues of the journals Human Resource Development International and Human Resource Development Quarterly, comprised in-depth interviews with members of the engineering workforce, including managers, of a large multinational manufacturing company.

Korte discovered that co-workers exert far more influence on a new hire's socialization in an organization than previously thought: About 65 percent of what employees learn comes from their co-workers, while just 15 percent comes from interactions with managers.

"Co-workers are major players in socializing a new employee," he explained. "I think it's important that managers realize the power that the workgroup has to make or break the new hire coming in because if people have bad experiences, they'll likely leave."

Which is exactly what happened in Sarah's case. Thankfully, it looks like she isn't double-questioning her decision and maintains a positive attitude.