“No, I don’t want to clean the bathroom again!” I thought to myself as my manager Tim told me that I would be responsible for cleaning the restrooms at the end of the night. It was going to be the third consecutive night I would have to do this at the end of my shift and I was not happy with it. Yes, I knew that it wasn’t Tim’s choice to give me this task, as the owner gives him the list of chores to do when closing, but I still held a grudge. A small part of me wanted to march to the front office where Rob, the owner and man in charge of the night operations sits, so I can tell him that it was unreasonable that I had to do this for three nights in a row. But I chose not to because I knew the climate inside this organization was defensive. Any input I would give most likely would have lead to me being fired or reprimanded in some way because that is how management dealt with conflict at this establishment.

This incident occurred three years ago while I was an employee at a children’s party place called Pump It Up. As an employee at this company I was exposed to an organization that had a defensive climate. McConack describes a defensive climate as a workplace that is “unfriendly, rigid and unsupportive”(McCornack, 2009, p.409). In these types of climates employees are often found to be unhappy because of the way that interactions are handled and the culture inside these organizations is usually unfriendly. At Pump it Up, management was terrible and did a great job in setting up this type of workplace environment. They would set up work schedules so that employees had little chance to work with friends of theirs. They told us they did this so they wouldn’t have to worry about us talking to each other in the arenas; employees despised this policy. Also they wanted employees to be as detached from the workplace as possible. Having employee parties was always out of the questions, as coworkers felt they couldn’t befriend the people they worked with because management wouldn’t let speak to each other openly. Even breaks were handled in a manor that was very unethical. Mangers would break employees in cycles where no two coworkers ever had a chance to be on break together. I hated each and every one of these policies that made up Pump it Up’s defensive climate (a climate I am thrilled to no longer be apart of) and think that this way of running a company is just wrong.

The defensive climate Pump it Up set up at their organization made employees feel almost imprisoned at work, which caused employees to perform tasks with minimal effort. McCornack suggests that organizations should develop supportive climates, which are workplace environments that can be described as “warm, open, and supportive,” instead of defensive ones in order to be more productive (McCornack, 2009). In order to create a supportive climate in the workplace management should exercise spontaneity, flexibility, empathy and equality, while also being descriptive and encouraging collaboration. Doing these six things will make employees feel more welcomed and comfortable when in the workplace. At my current place of work management does a successful job in doing these six things, which has made me perform more productively as an employee. I don’t know how or why I worked at Pump it Up for an extended period of time, but I know that in the future I would never let my self be an employee of an establishment with a defensive workplace climate.

Have you ever had to work in a defensive climate? If so, how did it make you feel as an employee?

If you have been fortunate enough to work in organizations that have supportive climates, how did that type of climate make you perform as an employee?

McCornack, S. (2009). Reflect and relate: An introduction to interpersonal communication. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.