Christmas Is The Time From Remembering The Office Ettiquete
Working in or leading virtual team can be a challenge, trying to use technology to overcome the barrier of time, distance and cultural diversity. In virtual team building, you may also not have line control or full time access to your team members either. So how is it possible to maintain that communication quality, especially during the periods of national or religious festivities. Obviously this includes festivals such as Christmas or Ramadan. Being genuinely global as an organisation means being aware of the people differences and building strategies to handle this.
Christmas presents some interesting challenges for those working in multi-cultural teams, whether in the same office or in virtual teams.
Here are the Global Integration‘s five top-level tips for managing some of the dilemma’s that cultural diversity in the workplace present:
1. If you’re not sure about someone’s preferences, ask, explaining that you want to ensure that they’re included if they want to be.
2. Christmas Cards: if you’re sending to everyone in the office, don’t exclude someone just because they’re of a different religion. It is kind to hand out a card at Christmas for a team member!
3. Consider a thought for those people in remote or part-time teams. Out of sight shouldn’t be out of mind. If you are having a celebration, try to ensure that, for example, cakes or drinks are provided in remote locations too.
4. Partying: don’t exclude someone from your Christmas party plans just because they don’t drink or have a different religion. An invitation can be refused, but no invitation will certainly be seen as a snub and is likely to cause offence. Don’t apply pressure, but do be genuine in your invitation.
5. People from different cultures will have their own important celebrations, and those celebrating Christmas should bear in mind that other religious festivals such Ramadan or Diwali hold just as much importance for their respective celebrants’ cultures, and should be duly respected.