What can be done, structurally, to change people's attitudes and how people treat each other?
The way I think about it, people, in as a group, mostly respond to outside stimulus. Landscape archetects, for instance, attempt to design spaces that will encourage specific emotional resonances, and therefore, attitudes.
I don't think you can tell people, "Be Excellent To Each Other", and make it stick. But there MIGHT be some ways to structure the con that would help that happen.
I know that one of the things that we attempt to do, for staff, IS staff den. As you know, and noticed, they are there to try to help the other staff members keep their spirits up, and therefore, hopefully, help others to be nicer. Obviously, if they'd been total jerks to you, you'd have been less inclined to help THEM out.
I work in what has been called "Staff Support", but is normally just called "Massage Den". We're a few massage therapists who are available all weekend to give massages to other staff members. One person jokingly called us the "benevolence restoration room".
One problem, of course, is, I worked out that if we DOUBLED the number of therapists we have, and worked every one of us to twice as hard as is safe for a massage therapist to work, we could MAYBE get massages to half of the staff. I think we do a lot of good to the con, but in terms of absolute positive attitude adjustment, I think both Staff Den and Green Room help a lot more people, a lot more often.
Working for a con is very stressful, and that makes some people snappish and bitchy. And snappishness and bitchiness snowball and get worse and worse.
I think, and hope, that Staff Den and Green Room are mitigators against this, and that we in Massage Den are also mitigators, but is there more that we can be doing? If we need an attitude adjustment, how can we go about making this adjustment, and making it stick?
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Date: 2008-01-22 01:04 am (UTC)The way I think about it, people, in as a group, mostly respond to outside stimulus. Landscape archetects, for instance, attempt to design spaces that will encourage specific emotional resonances, and therefore, attitudes.
I don't think you can tell people, "Be Excellent To Each Other", and make it stick. But there MIGHT be some ways to structure the con that would help that happen.
I know that one of the things that we attempt to do, for staff, IS staff den. As you know, and noticed, they are there to try to help the other staff members keep their spirits up, and therefore, hopefully, help others to be nicer. Obviously, if they'd been total jerks to you, you'd have been less inclined to help THEM out.
I work in what has been called "Staff Support", but is normally just called "Massage Den". We're a few massage therapists who are available all weekend to give massages to other staff members. One person jokingly called us the "benevolence restoration room".
One problem, of course, is, I worked out that if we DOUBLED the number of therapists we have, and worked every one of us to twice as hard as is safe for a massage therapist to work, we could MAYBE get massages to half of the staff. I think we do a lot of good to the con, but in terms of absolute positive attitude adjustment, I think both Staff Den and Green Room help a lot more people, a lot more often.
Working for a con is very stressful, and that makes some people snappish and bitchy. And snappishness and bitchiness snowball and get worse and worse.
I think, and hope, that Staff Den and Green Room are mitigators against this, and that we in Massage Den are also mitigators, but is there more that we can be doing? If we need an attitude adjustment, how can we go about making this adjustment, and making it stick?