The Office Caste System

In theory, many U.S. corporations pride themselves on being one big happy family where top executives are called by their first names and the president's door is open to all. But in practice, says Modern Office Procedures magazine in its June issue, the well-run office is no such place. It is an entrenched caste system, extending even beyond the office to the family. In a survey of company attitudes, the magazine concludes that companies are caste-conscious and glad of it.

Company executives, the survey shows, defend the caste system as a source of discipline and respect: "Someone has to give orders; someone has to take them. If the relation between supervisor and subordinate is fettered by friendship, the company loses." For example, an accounting manager had two close friends who did a sloppy job working for him. Result? All three were fired. The reason, explains a member of top management, is simple: "Every supervisor at one time or another has to get tough with his subordinates. He can't do this if he's too friendly with the people under him."

Companies that get too comradely often regret it. When one firm decided to have monthly parties at employees' homes to promote togetherness, it "ran into petty personality fights, accusations of favoritism and severe back-biting that carried over into the office." After this experience, the firm reversed itself, told management to cut off all outside friendships with subordinates.

The office caste system is hardest on those newly promoted, because it forces them--and their wives--to break away from friends. A wife, says one executive, "can be downright dangerous if she insists on keeping close friendships with the wives of her husband's subordinates. Her friendships will rub off on him, color his judgment about the people under him, jeopardize his job."

In a horribly practical guide for losing friends and dropping acquaintances, Modern Office Procedures recommends this course to the newly promoted:

P: Break with old friends and subordinates gradually, so as not to build resentment. P: Find logical excuses for not joining friends at coffee breaks, miss the department bowling or card session occasionally, then more frequently. P: Accept invitations to subordinates' homes at first, but reciprocate only with group invitations. Then do not accept at all. P: Give wives more time to pull away from friendships, since they "don't understand the protocol of office organization because they aren't exposed to it daily."

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