Be plankful for your employer
It started a few weeks ago in Australia. Or maybe a few years ago in Korea. Or maybe many years ago in England.
UPDATE: Tom Green thinks he invented planking in 1994.
I’m referring of course to planking, a ridiculous internet phenomenon in which participants post photos of themselves lying in outlandish places. “Plankers,” as the media have taken to calling participants, have attracted praise and condemnation from journalists, heads of government, and police departments.
One would expect the business response to planking to be mostly muted. After all, it’s not the company’s business what employees do on their downtime, right?
Wrong. Employees have been disciplined and even fired, at Apple, McDonald’s, BHP Billiton, oil giant Santos, an Australian hospital, and Woolworths, among others. While lying on the floor in a restaurant or hospital presents obvious health concerns, the element of risk in a retail store is negligible.
If you generate media attention for the unnecessarily harsh discipline of employees that lie on a table or trolley, are you really protecting your corporate image? Surely the risk and cost of a minor injury and subsequent lawsuit is negligible relative to the loss of business caused by looking like an unreasonable ass.
A man planking on a roof. Roel Wijnants/flickr
Unlike the buzz-kills at Apple, our neighbours at Primal Fusion have embraced the planking craze. In May, they organized an office-wide group-plank. Awkward? Maybe a little bit. Fun? Definitely! It generated positive media attention and showed a willingness to enjoy the work day.
With top staff increasingly prioritizing fun corporate cultures over top tier salaries, having a laid-back approach to pranks and recreation can help you recruit and retain the best people.
So what do you think? Is it unreasonable to terminate someone who "lies down" on the job?
