You Have Control Issues and Your Employer Knows it!

We all have control issues, and your work's office building confirms it. That's right, a lot of those "I'm in charge" buttons are just for show! But when it comes to overall satisfaction on the job, your employer has a trick or two up their sleeves.

If  you arrive at the job site and need to cross the street between parking and work, that button for the street crossing sign may very well be inert. Though, it's not the case in all areas, New York City did admit years ago that when they upgraded the pedestrian crosswalk signs to timed circuitry, they left the old buttons on the sign poles. The reason; it made people think the light would change for them sooner and discourage jay walking.

You then head inside the building and enter the elevator a little late because you had to wait on a fake street sign. After selecting your floor, you reach for the "door close" button. You know, the one with the two arrows facing each other. Again, you've been duped. Though elevator manufacturers insist the buttons do work, they generally don't engage without a fireman's key. So why install a push button at all? To help alleviate the frustration of waiting a whole 2.3 seconds. In short, it allows you to feel in control of the situation.

But the manipulation does not stop there! When you finally arrive at your desk, a crossing light and 2.3 seconds late, you may feel the need to adjust the temperature controls to create just the right working environment. It's estimated that over half of the free standing thermostats in larger office buildings are completely FAKE! Why the elaborate sham? If you are cold, more than likely someone down the hall is hot and vice versa. However, your company doesn't want to have to reconcile physical comfort concerns of an entire company based on whose cubicle is nearest a large window and gets the sun. To put a lock box box around a functioning unit would only elicit more complaints. The actual degree setting is generally the exact same for a particular season, but the phony dials create a placebo effect that will allow you to get back to work.

Almost a hundred years ago, research was conducted at a factory in Cicero, Illinois. The study was to see if affecting the variables such as light, temperature, humidity and even music in the work environment would increase productivity. All of these adjustments had a nominal effect on overall output. The biggest factor in the study was not the adjustments, but the fact that they were conducted at all. Workers assumed that their employer was making the changes to please the employees, and therefore... cared. Known as the Hawthorne Effect, this was a groundbreaking study indeed. That simply the attitude of employers toward their workers would in and of itself increase productivity.

Going through life pushing buttons and making tiny adjustments to EVERYTHING adds stress to our lives, robs us of our joy, and blinds us to the opportunities to see the world in a different way; as it truly is. We cannot choose with whom our children fall in love, if we will be in an accident on the way home or whether we will even have a job next week. My advice; slow down, draw a deep breath, take a placebo (tick tacks work pretty well) and understand you are not in control of most things in your life, especially on the job. Admitting as much is half the battle. Relinquishing the need for control allows you to shake off stress, clear your mind, and do what your company really wants; get back to work.  

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