The Hidden Culture

 Every place where people live and/or work has a hidden culture. Whether it is our communities, offices or government, a hidden culture exists that falls between total lawlessness and total inflexible enforcement. Knowing these cultures and working with them can make the difference between total success and total failure.

 How the hidden culture works

 An example of this hidden culture comes within our communities. A Street may have a speed limit of 70 kph. If total inflexible enforcement were present, then we would be fined for doing 71 kph in a 70 zone. On the other hand, in a lawlessness environment, a person could drive at 100 and still not fear getting fined. In most communities, you can drive faster than the 70kph speed limit but you will probably get a ticket if you go over 80. So the culture says that you can go faster than 70, but must go slower than 80 to prevent getting that ticket. Within the city, a speed of 78 may get you a ticket, but in the country, you may not be fined at 82. Learning what is acceptable is the key. Another example could be having a small backyard pool. The by-law clearly states that a pool that contains 2 feet of water or less doesn’t require a permit or fence. The hidden culture within the city says that 25 or even 26 inches is acceptable. Outside the city, where the lot sizes are much larger, the limit may range from 36 to 48 inches or the by-law may be completely ignored.

 Community cultures can be a real challenge to deal with. Since lot sizes are considerably larger outside of major cities, more flexibility is granted. It is this flexibility that attracts people away from city life. In the country people can do things such as ride snow mobiles, all terrain vehicles and have backyard pools of all sizes without fear of penalty as long as they are reasonable. .

 The hidden culture in our places of employment

  In our workplace, this culture can be seen in the activities workers do. For example, a company may have a rule that states no one is to access the internet during regular work hours. The hidden culture says that you can so long as you don’t abuse it. A walk through the office reveals most if not all employees accessing the internet for various reasons without fear of a penalty from the boss. The hidden culture can involve everything from hours worked, overtime, arrival and departure time, lunch breaks and even promotions.

 When the hidden culture fails

 Problems occur when those in authority which can be the government or management abuse the culture, or use it to punish someone they don’t like, otherwise known as “holding someone to a higher standard than everyone else” or simply discrimination.

 A manager may not like an employee so that manager may decide to punish that employee for accessing the internet during regular work hours. During the hearing, the employee admits to doing so and receives a penalty of some sort and is prohibited from accessing the internet and may even have all internet access removed from their computer. The decision followed the official rules, but breaks the rules created by the hidden culture. It is this break in consistency that creates a poor work climate. The individual now returns to work, knowing they were punished for doing something everyone else was and is doing. The employee becomes stressed and may eventually leave. This creates negative stress in the remaining employees and a dysfunctional work environment results. Employees no longer feel safe and spend more time looking over their shoulder than they do working. It is discrimination from a legal point of view.

 It is this culture that is used at times to single out and punish individuals that are seen to be a danger to the government or management.

 It is this same culture that, if used properly can result in fast promotion in a company, or allow a homeowner to abuse their rights in a community. A person that masters the hidden culture can be seen to receive preferential treatment wherever the go.

 What makes the hidden culture work is consistency.

 Unions and the hidden culture

Many large companies and government have unions. The purpose of the union is to protect the employee from being abused by management; unions try to enforcement fairness when applying their collective agreements. This is what causes the rift between labor and management. Managers love the hidden culture and like the flexibility built into the hidden culture and use it to reward employees on the spur of the moment, while punishing employees as they see fit. The problem comes from having a bully boss. A bully boss will take advantage of the hidden culture to dominate and intimidate the staff by rewarding those staff members that suck up to the boss or know how to play the game. This frequently results in poor performance of the staff as severe negative stress starts to set in. Unions, on the other hand want all rewards discussed, documented and distributed evenly. One of the most contentious issues is pay rates. Management wants to be able to pay people as they see fit, while unions want people paid according to their job description and performance. As long as there are bully bosses, we will need unions.

 The hidden culture in our communities

 The same action can occur within our communities. A community has many rules, regulations, by-laws and statutes that it is to comply with. The hidden culture may require that many of these requirements are either ignored totally or applied with flexibility. What ever action taken by the government in this case, consistency is the key. Abuse would be very difficult if the actual rules were written to more closely match the hidden culture, and if there were provisions in the rules that clearly indicated that the rules must be applied evenly and fairly.

 When government breaks from consistency, bad things happen. People only complain when the actions of others create hazards, a nuisance, or damage. The hidden culture may not approve of this, but the people responsible for the problems may be popular in the community, be running a service for the community or have connections with prominent and powerful people in the community. The government now has to make a tough decision. Correct the problem and protect the hidden culture, or protect the offending person because of their status in the community. Frequently the government will protect the offending person so as to protect their own position in government; the government official probably lacks the leadership to do what’s right.

 This is usually done by breaking from the hidden culture just for the complaining person and use total inflexible enforcement. The person, who asked for help, is pummeled with frivolous violations that no one else in the community is subjected to in order to teach them a lesson. This is known as Community bullying or Neighborhood bullying. Any attempt to fight back simply results in more aggression on the part of the government. The purpose to this type of bullying is to drive the victim and family out of the community and teach others a lesson. The result is a dysfunctional community where people become fearful of the government instead of respecting the government. As word of government bullying spreads, fewer people will come forward to voice their concerns. The government will use this reduction of complains as propaganda and say the reduction in complaints indicates a reduction in problems. This again creates severe negative stress in the home owners and creates a community that is split into the privileged ones and the disadvantaged ones with all the rest simply keep pretending to see nothing. The government sees nothing wrong with this as it is the popular thing to do instead of the proper thing to do. While it works short term, long term effects can include increased violence, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, vandalism, car theft, assaults, suicides etc.