We all have to work. That's the way it is in life. But that doesn't mean that having fun at work is impossible. Find out how we work at Paymenttools in this article.
We spend a not insignificant part of our lives working, and that's not always fun. And even though a work-life balance now plays a significant role in most people's selection of a job, one in four doesn't get along with the job environment and corporate culture. Employees want to experience a sense of purpose in their job and not feel that their monthly salary is a pain in the ass. Money is important, of course, but not everything. Respect, a positive job environment, a good team and fun at work are important factors for an optimal work model.
Showing respect is not a cuddle factor, but an important basis and can be expressed in a variety of ways. One of them is trust. We are not talking about basic trust, i.e. trust that an employee will do the work assigned and come to work on time, but trust that employees will make the right decisions for the company.
This is where it gets complicated, because the sooner you have the subjective feeling that you have a say, the easier it is to fall into the mode: "Trust is good. Control is better". To clarify this, an example. When a worker paints a wall, most people quickly come to the conclusion that they can judge it well. Painting a wall is not a complex task, so a judgment is easy. In the auto garage, it takes a great technical understanding to really be able to judge whether the repair that was done was necessary or correct. So we tend to have a say in fields where, on the one hand, the results are visible (a white-painted wall) or the task to be done does not seem particularly complex. But anyone who has actually painted a wall knows how complicated that can be with all the associated tasks, such as removing old wallpaper, filling the wall, wallpapering and taping.
In a generic sense, this can be applied to many areas. A software developer is more likely to be trusted for lack of knowledge than a screen designer. The work of a software developer is invisible and supposedly more complex than the creation of a graphic design. The problem is that people start to categorize employees and to judge the results of their work on the basis of a more or less existing half-knowledge. This is usually not based on suspicion, but on the problem that there are fewer people who can judge the code of a software than there are people who believe that they can evaluate a website, for example. The extreme form is known in psychology as the Dunning-Kruger effect, the cognitive distortion in the self-concept of incompetent people to overestimate their own knowledge and ability.
A government agency has different framework conditions than a corporation. A corporation, in turn, has different conditions than a start-up. A start-up works completely differently than a family business, and a freelancer has completely different working models. None of this is bad or good. An employee who needs a lot of structure for themselves may be better off in a corporation or government agency than in a start-up. Here it is important to make it clear in which area one is on the move and it becomes complicated above all when a company or the employee puts on a face that has nothing to do with reality. No one, neither the company nor the employee, does themselves a good turn by selling themselves as something they are not. In the end, unfulfilled expectations lead to frustration that can only be sorted out with difficulty. A fish feels bad on land, and not every job environment suits the employee. The more the individual needs of the employee match the expectations of the company, the more confetti and glitter. Since our headquarters are located right in the heart of the carnival stronghold of Cologne, you can imagine what we think of confetti. A lot.
Life is not a pony yard and you can't always be on the rainbow, but you can try to get closer to it. You may not be able to dictate how much fun you have on the job, but you can encourage it by creating the right conditions. Agile working, decent work tools, and large scope for decision-making are fun and help to motivate and promote innovation. Successful companies usually offer their employees precisely
We at Paymenttools love challenges. This applies to our desire to change the world of payment transactions sustainably as well as to our claim to value the daily commitment of our employees and to offer a good ecosystem in which it is fun to work together on the topics as a team. Because without a good team, a company is nothing.
Maik Klotz is a consultant, speaker and author specializing in banking, payment, digital identity, e-commerce and retail. He was profiled by the Süddeutsche Zeitung in the industry's "Influencer" series and moderates and speaks at many industry events. Maik is co-founder of Payment & Banking.
