The Water Cooler is Empty - Revisited

Companies continue to not “get it” when it comes to social media.  Most view social media as a direct threat, forgetting its origins in the “water cooler” talk that fomented effective organizational communication.  Social media is our new water cooler, with a twist.

Before the advent of social media, employees used hallway talk to air issues, complaints, and opinions.  This talk allowed for frank discussion about management’s shortcomings, creating an authentic organizational communication foundation.  While much of this talk was hidden, occasionally management would get a whiff, but not enough to understand it.  The water cooler whispers were the communication currency of those not plugged into management.  And management was perplexed by that rumor, partially because pinning down its source was nigh impossible.  The “employee channel” was a closely guarded, subscription-only service that management was not qualified to receive.

Enter social media.  Initially used largely for people to connect with friends and stay in touch, it quickly evolved into an outlet of frustrations, opinions, and observations regarding the work organization, a consequence of our inability to easily separate our lives into “personal” and “work” compartments.  While hallway talk continues, this new outlet offers another voice.  This trend will accelerate as younger workers fill company desks.  These employees live in a social media world and social media is their method of communication.

Here’s where companies miss the boat: we’ve seen companies and organizations scour employee social media accounts to learn what those employees are saying about the company, and then use that information to discipline the employee should they step out of bounds.  Water cooler discussions have been happening since the advent of teams.  The difference now is that there is a record of the conversation with attribution, where in the past, employees had plausible deniability.   Companies should welcome social media chatter instead of squelching it by punishing the perpetrators.  Social media is a direct means of pinpointing issues -- without which these issues will remain hidden, only to surface later with higher consequences and more dire remedies.

Social media is an opportunity for enlightened organizations to understand employee communication.  Finally companies have a window into water cooler talk!   Knowing the chatter allows management to understand and preempt potential issues.  Social raises the volume on the hallway whispers while eliminating guesswork.  Bad managers and organizational decisions have deep negative consequences to organizational success, but complaints about those managers and decisions surface too late in the world of hallway talk.  Social media accelerates the problem identification.

Instead of companies using social media monitoring to control employees, they should view it as an essential part of a healthy organization.  Savvy companies will go so far as to sponsor such a resource internally, giving employees an anonymous outlet to let off steam. 

Social media is not going away.  Ignore it at your peril.  The sooner social media is embraced as a positive, creative, and supportive resource, the sooner it will benefit your company. 

Duane Grove is the founder of Connect2Action, a strategy execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth.  Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.  Learn more by visiting www.connect2action.com.