Учебно-методическое пособие по развитию навыков профессионального общения. В двух частях. Ч.1: Management. Руденко Т.П - 39 стр.

      SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITY                                                          “I always say, don't ever miss one of your kids' important events.
                                                                               That's something you might really regret and that's sure to impact on
      (If you have any practice of working for any firm or compa-              your work life. I'm verybigon parents being present for their children,”
ny – this task is for you.)                                                    she says.
                                                                                      And it is not just employees' children that fall under Vallone's
                    A New Era in Corporate Culture                             protective gaze. It's vital, she says, that spouses “understand and toler-
      For some companies, taking very good care of their employees is          ate” the oft enormous demands of the super-charged marketplace. To-
good for the bottom line.                                                      ward that end, the company produces and distributes a family newsletter
                                                                               to inform the folks at home about corporate goings-on.
                                                            By Sue Mellen             “We ask a lot of our people and of their families. If we're asking
       In the corporate world of the 80's it was all pin-striped suits, but-   someone to get on a plane on a Sunday night, it really helps if a spouse
toned-down collars and shiny mahogany desks. But all too many busi-            understands why,” she says. In keeping with Vallone's casual manage-
nesses discovered all too quickly that the shine was just a thin patina.       ment style, every day is casual dress day and the ULT space is designed
All the polish in the world did nothing to save bottom lines that just got     to allow room for individual expression.
duller and dingier all the time.                                                      “People in high tech often make use of their offices as inventive
       Fast forward to today.                                                  environments, sometimes working 12 or 15 hours a day. At the height
       “When you look at the 80s, you see that there was all this eco-         of a project, they may be virtually living at work. So they need the free-
nomic excess. People were driven by monetary gain. Then, when we               dom to set up their own environments. That can be hard for a designer
went into the slump, people began to look at priorities, at what really        when you're sliooting for a clean, crisp look, but you have to build in
drives success. And do you know what? It's really personal satisfaction.       the room for that individuality,” comments Ed Halsted of the Halsted
People who have happy and supportive lives – both at home and at work          Design Group in Manchester. Halsted created the design for the ULT
are more productive. In the 80s everyone expected you to sacrifice your        space.
personal life, your family for your work. Now it's frowned upon if you do             Vallone says she likes to show her appreciation to employees
sacrifice a personal and family life,” comments Carol Vallone, president       who are putting in these kinds of mind-numbing hours. Sometimes she
and CEO of Universal Learning Technology (ULT) in Peabody.                     does that with traditional means; restaurant gift certificates, for exam-
       The company, which builds Web-based and interactive training            ple. But then there's the non-traditional approach.
and learning applications, is one of many in the area and industry work-              “We were at a conference and my sales manager had been going
ing to build a culture that is fun, flexible and people-centered. For ex-      non-stop. So I sent a massage therapist up to his room to help him re-
ample.                                                                         lax,” Vallone recalls.
       That ability to work as a team can be critical, she notes, when the            At the Cambridge-based Web design firm TVisions, relaxation is
crunch is on~a nearly permanent condition in fast-growingtechnology            serious business; a component of corporate identity, really. Like ULT
companies like ULT. Founded in 1996, the private, venture-backed               the five-year-old firm – which started with two employees and now
company counted five employees last fall. It now has 30 and Vallone            houses 115-is growing exponentially.
expects to hit the 100 mark in a few months. But rather than inducing                 “As engineers, we wanted to face the challenges of new tech-
her to pull in the corporate reins, the growth-related pressure has            nologies and to solve problems that might help a lot of people. As we've
prompted her to insist that employees take time out every day to re-           grown, that attitude has remained part of us. We want to give people the
charge. Of course, there is one hard and fast company rule.                    opportunity to work on interesting projects. And the extracurricular

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