Sharing workplace space

Fredrick Qaphelani Mabikwa Successful Solutions 
We share space in the workplace due to many reasons chief of which is affordability of this space. Many of us find ourselves sharing workplace space which includes offices. I have observed that sharing workplace space can be a source of conflict for some people and I thought of sharing a few tips on how we can manage and minimise conflicts in sharing workplace space.

When there is a need to share space, managers will naturally put people of the same office together. Now when we are put in the same space, same office to share, we are a team and should work as a team. If it’s a service office, we should, if possible be able to serve clients who might be looking for a colleague who is not in the office at that time. When we share space and we cannot cover for our colleagues, then we are short-changing our clients and damaging the reputation of the organisation. We should be able to say to a client, “So and so is not in the office but how can we assist?”

Let’s not tell the client to go and return when our roommate has returned, when we could have served the client.
I want to emphasise the importance of team work in shared spaces by briefly referring to John Maxwell’s Law of the Chain in his 17 laws of team work. The law says “the strength of the team is impacted by its weakest link.” In the shared space you should not have a weak link that might break the chain. When you are sharing space, always take it that you are a chain. The whole long, strong chain can be broken by one weak link. So it’s important that you don’t become that weak link. Now if you are in a shared space you cannot afford the luxury enjoyed by those who don’t share. Those who don’t share can lock their offices and tell their secretaries they are doing an important report, therefore “no calls”, and “no visitors”. After finishing the “report” they emerge from their offices with “piri piri” red eyes.
They were sleeping nursing a hangover. You cannot sleep in a shared office. Imagine a client comes in a space shared by three people, two are working and one is sleeping. What does the client think about the organisation? The image of the whole organisation is tainted and somehow as a team certain parts of your work process is suffering because of the sleeping fellow.

There is therefore a need to foster a very united team when we share offices. There is a need to really click. Imagine sharing an office with someone who doesn’t want to talk to you, you even feel like not going to work. When there are more than three people in the space, then there is more need to make sure that the team spirit is even further strengthened.

We should not team up against our colleagues when we are sharing space. We should not create unholy divisions with people we are sharing space with. How would you feel if you entered your shared space and your colleagues are all laughing and when you appear, they suddenly keep quiet and don’t share the joke with you? Such things make that space/office dysfunctional.

When we share space, we don’t have as much privacy as those who don’t. Now because we are sharing there is need to respect one another because the territory is shared; it doesn’t belong to one person. There is a need to respect that “open and shared privacy”. We shouldn’t make noise in a shared environment, we disturb others. If you have the privilege of playing music on your computer, the music must be kept at the minimum volume which you only can hear. The moment your colleagues start hearing your music you are disturbing them. Ear/headphones are ideal for shared spaces. You don’t want to force your colleagues to listen to music from your . . . it can be a satanist church.  It’s very unfair.

We do have visitors at times who really have no business in our offices. They were passing by your office and they just thought of popping in to say “hie”. These are the kind of visitors who we don’t need in shared offices. You can have them in your private office. Some of us will entertain our friends who have no business in our shared offices at the expense of our colleagues. They will come and laugh the day away, eating take-aways and gossiping. This disrupts the workplace business environment. This is why some workplaces have notices “No visitors during working hours”. Let us tell our visitors and our uncles from the rural areas to see us after work. Yes we all like our uncles from kumusha but at times they have very long stories on who has died back home, who has impregnated whose daughter and they will also give updates of the state of livestock when they  left, like which cattle were not feeling well when they left….very long stories indeed.
As we share offices it’s important to think of the other person. The philosophy of “Do unto others as you would want them do unto you” is very crucial in sharing workplace space.  Cleanliness is of critical importance in shared spaces. You cannot afford to have a bad odour in a shared space. How do you expect your colleagues to function with you if you have unpleasant odours? Imagine in this hot weather subjecting your colleagues to bad odours from your armpits because you have not used a roll-on or deodorant. At times you have not bathed. I am not exaggerating. For some reason some adults do not bath regularly when they come to work.

Where there are only two people sharing an office, there is a greater chance of creating good rapport since there are only two of you. There is a need to offer each other some privacy at given times. When a genuine visitor comes for your colleague and you pick that they are discussing a sensitive topic, you can excuse yourself for a few minutes. Your colleague cannot tell you to excuse them for a few minutes, this is common sense. You don’t pull your long ear to listen to the conversation. This is how gossip starts. The same applies when they have a sensitive tele-conversation. I want to repeat that this is done once in a while for genuine conversations.

If you are in a shared space and you are the gate keeper, that is you keep the keys for the shared space, it is important that you are very punctual. In fact you should be the first person to get to the office. You don’t want to find people waiting for you outside the office when you are late. Policies allowing each person of a shared space should have their own key but some organisations’ policies discourage this because some feel it compromises security. When you are the “gatekeeper” and your colleagues want to do extra time make arrangements that they access the office after hours if you can’t be with them. Don’t just lock the office at exactly five o’clock just because you have the privilege of being in charge of the keys.  There is a need for flexibility if you are the “key man” when it come to dealing with your colleagues in shared spaces.

There are those in partitioned offices whose partitions don’t reach the ceiling, these also are shared offices. Half the time, because people are not in the same room as such, there is always conflict between the partitions because people in the other partition think they have their own autonomy. This is not the case, the space is still shared. Everything you do in your partition in terms of disruptions affects people next door. Don’t say because you have no eye contact with them, therefore you are alone. I once witnessed a very bad scenario where people in the partitions had a habit of talking on top of their voices so that the people next door could hear if they had a complaint. In return the neighbours would also shout back, it was really a circus. Pride and immaturity prevented them from just walking across and discussing issues with their colleagues.

In conclusion I want to say when we share workplace space; there is a great need to be settled. When you sit on your desk, stay there and do your work, move only when it’s necessary. There are people who can’t just sit on their desk as if the chair and desk are hot. They are always up and about and at times it’s not clear what they are doing. In some cases it’s the ladies who want other people to see the new attire. All this spoils the business environment in a shared space.

When we share space at the workplace, let’s remember the other person. There is a need for flexibility, tolerance and understanding. Let’s be guided by the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would want them do unto you…”