Manners Maketh the Man

It never ceases to amaze me just how arrogant or plain ignorant some of my fellow Extreme Commuters can be. Now at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, (although personally I like to think of myself as middle aged), each and everyone of us has a personal space the crossing of which is and should be by invitation only.

I should explain. The term Extreme commuter has been coined to describe the new breed of business commuter whose daily travel to their place of employment is in excess of 3 hours. This is no journalists flight of fancy either as I can confirm that you will struggle to find a seat after the first 3 stops of my single one hour fifty minute journey. Now when you consider each coach has the seating capacity of approximately 74 bleary eyed travellers you don’t need to be Einstein to work out that each half hour more than 500 smug snoring seated commuters and an extra 100 envious standing travellers are conveyed, more often that not arriving late, (the train also being of middle age), to their place of work.

Under these somewhat testing conditions you would anticipate a camaraderie between the intrepid rail users. A group sympathy and acknowledgement of your fellows pain while restricted and confined in the cramped and somewhat tired surrounds of a sealed London bound tin can. But none of it. It’s every man woman and howling brat for themselves. Now resisting the temptation to dive into a prolonged diatribe on the ridiculous legislation that means animals on way to market have better conditions of travel than us or that I could fly across Europe and back for the same price as my ticket, I will explain why my hackles are well and truly up.

I was always taught that you treat people the way that you would wish to be treated and to think of others before yourself. Now you may think those old fashioned values but I have found that this simple premise works and it’s always easier for instance to get the right response if you ask rather than demand. So you will understand my annoyance at being subjected to my seat sharing companions antics. It’s understandable on a journey of this length and with the computer tablet and laptop common place that people utilise the time to catch up on work. Indeed I’m tapping away on the train now. It’s also understandable that a train designed for a pre computer era is going to provide one or two challenges, I accept that. But what I don’t understand or find acceptable was his expectation that because he was, it appeared, desperately trying to produce an overdue document, attempt to occupy more than his allotted space. Not only was I subjected to constant flying elbows in the ribs but also endured practically wearing equipment, paper and the stale smelling contents of his mouth as he constantly coughed without covering up.

This ignorance of, or arrogance for his fellow travellers is unfortunately not an isolated example. Having retuned to work after an all too short holiday I have jumped straight into the detailed planning stages of several projects and have been undertaking a period of intensive investigation work to put meat on the bones of the initial briefs. These are always testing moments where you try to understand the true story behind the list of requirements and tease out which elements are business critical and which constitute a wish list. It’s therefore been a big disappointment to hold discussions where the very vocal desire of one individual threatens to overshadow the requirement for all others and doubly frustrating as they ignore advice of accepted operational good practice. To try and justify something by stating, ‘I’ve always done it this way’ or ‘I’ve been doing this for years and I know best’ is as unacceptable as the antics of the train terrorist.

I’ve recently encountered other examples of bad manners. We have recently undertaken a long overdue reorganisation of our own work place and put in place a lot of the flexible new ways of working environments that we advocate in the schemes we produce. A central element of this fit out was the placing right in the shop front and in full view of every man and his dog of large work benches that double up as the breakout or tea point for the business. The premise being that they are available to all at anytime. It’s a great place to work, extremely comfortable with music, drinks and a view on tap. And there in lies the problem. Much the same way the sun bed hoggers lay claim to a lounger in the prime poolside slot, so the space terrorists expand and occupy. By the time lunch arrives those not already drawing up mandates to reclassify the space as a private principality have the discomfort of either having to apply for squatter rights or find an alternative venue. A victim of its own success you may think, but not in my book. It’s just another case of bad manners. We have now had to instigate a rule that no working happens in the area between the hours of 12 and 2pm.

Now as space planners, interior designers and gods of all things workspace we know and can prove the benefits of these environments to our clients, they are tried and tested but what we can’t do is legislate for the human factor. People inherently need to understand where the boundaries lie and will, it seems, once discovered push those boundaries as far as they dare. Socially accepted behaviour can be very different between cultures and ages which can lead to misunderstandings and embarrassment but the blatant disregard for others is a completely different matter. I think it’s time that we drew up five workplace commandments to keep these self obsessed individuals in check.

• Thou shall not talk loudly on thy mobile phone, especially in the quiet zone and especially especially not in the toilet cubicles.
• Thou shall not come to work suffering from plague, dicky tummy or man flu. One sufferer is enough without infecting the whole work shy department.
• Those afflicted with tickley throat or congested chest shall apply a hand when sneezing and coughing or be forced to wear the mask of shame.
• Thou shall talk respectfully to thy coworkers and not place one self above others. For those who’s arse you kick on the way up will undoubtedly want kissing on the way back down.
• Thou shall occupy only what is given unto them within the breakout zone and only during the working hour or spend time immemorial removing crumbs and congealed pot noodle from thy laptop and hand held device.

But remember in your quest to educate your co-workers if at first you don’t succeed… then skydiving is really not for you.

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