Informal Inspection by the Boss
Imagine this setting: A small company consisting of about 8 people. They busy themselves with interim services (finding and placing candidates within companies). All this is in the country of Belgium. Most of them work remotely. There is not one office, and most communication is done by phone and/or e-mail. Seems pretty efficient, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought too until I got this story from one of the people working there.
It turns out that there was a problem with receiving emails from this particular person (can’t reveal the name). Not much of a problem and is technically easily fixed. The technical part is and was not the problem. What turned out to be the case is that the Managing Directors were receiving emails in blind copies (Bcc) of everything that everybody either received or sent. So much for (the right?) for privacy.
Ok, from a cultural point of view.
What’s the cultural make-up of Belgium according to Professor Geert Hofstede? I’ll list the first four dimensions:
- Power Distance: 65
- Individualism: 75
- Masculinity: 54
- Uncertainty Avoidance: 89
Which dimensions make the most sense in explaining this behavior by the 2 bosses (the reading of all emails sent and received by their employees)? My best pick would be Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance.
Why Power Distance?
Belgium’s scores are culturally relatively high on dimensions 1 and 2. The consequence is that most Belgians will do what their boss tells them to do. In other words, they will accept (not necessarily respect) their boss. In addition, Belgians are quite Individualistic. Meaning in this case that they also have an “agenda” of their own. The combination of the two (dimensions 1 & 2) makes that when a Belgian subordinate accepts the assignment of their boss, and their own “agenda” doesn’t “support” this, they might follow their own agenda in the case the boss is not paying attention (or “inspecting” what they do). So, as a boss, you’re better off knowing what your people are doing all the time. Hence the screening of all the emails by the two bosses in this company (and they did screen ALL emails!).
Why Uncertainty Avoidance?
Simply put, to (in this case almost literally) avoid the uncertainty of not knowing what “others” are doing it is best to always know everything. In countries that score high on this dimension, people will pick up their mobile phones and answer any calls even when they’re in meetings. In the above-mentioned company reading all sent and received emails was an easy way to “know” what others were doing.
Should you want to read an article on cultural similarities that can lead to cultural difficulties, read this case study.
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Very Chinese too. They might put a Chinese staffer in the same building as foreign staff, to be helpful and watch communications. I was talking to the HR head in an office. Her computer screen faced me from behind her. At one point it changed and started showing me all the rooms, not just offices, on rotation, via hidden cameras. None of those cameras were visible when I looked later on. The one in the training room could easily record training for repeat training later – good quality.
Chinese often consider it normal for a person to use private email instead of a company email address. Sometimes company information stays in the personal inbox for personal reasons. It can drive one nuts to know the information is there, via another channel, but held for unknown reasons. I recently had a director of an org in Guilin China reply to me with a four month delay, after he entered and took over a former staffers email.
It seems to me that you don’t have a right to privacy at work – you are using the boss’s computer and his email infrastructure to do the work for which the boss pays you. Your contract or IT policy probably says something to this effect. If you spend your day goofing off or sending personal emails, the boss has a right to complain. If you want privacy, use your personal phone for personal stuff
@Jack,
I can assure you that there is/was no policy stating that the “boss” had the right to see all emails.
The person in this story was certainly not “goofing” around.
I merely tried to illustrate that a young company, consisting of young, talented people can not escape what big Belgian organisations do.
It is also an illustration of the enormeous burocracy and in-effectiveness in Belgian organisations. I know, not all, but trust me, most do work like this.
How it ended?
Well, a couple of months on, and nothing has changed. The two directors are aware that everyone knows they are following all discussions. And they still keep following those discussions.
At times even answering emails on behalf of the originally addressed person…