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Learning your company’s policy inside and out will help you distinguish which issues you’re facing are policy issues, and which are cultural issues. A company’s culture is not documented in a handbook—rather it’s in the way employees communicate to each other, it’s whether or not managers actually take lunch breaks, and it’s the assumption that people at the director-level are available by phone 24 hours.
The distinction between policy and culture became clear to me a few years ago when an employee asked me to intervene because he was allergic to shellfish and another employee was eating shellfish in the lunchroom. The employee who came to me had not filed any accommodations with human resources—meaning he hadn't established a policy that would require his coworkers to refrain from eating shellfish in his presence. He reported to me that the smell of shellfish made him feel sick but that unless he ate shellfish, the odor itself did not cause any allergic reaction.
His request was really a reflection of our company’s cultural expectations. He thought that since his coworkers knew about his shellfish allergy and how the smell made him sick, they should choose to refrain from eating it around him. His coworkers could choose to do that. But if they don’t, there’s no repercussions for them; they wouldn’t be breaking company policy. They would simply not be prioritizing their coworker’s request, and maybe—being a little inconsiderate.
As a manager, I had to redirect him to make the choice of asking his coworkers to refrain from eating shellfish in his presence, or to choose to leave the lunchroom and eat elsewhere.
At first I understood his frustrations and wondered why the company didn’t regulate such scenarios. I then realized that there are so many subjective moments in our relationships and communications with coworkers. Policies are minimal on purpose. They are not meant to dictate how relationships are built and how employees connect with each other. For that, companies rely on leaders to set the tone and model decision-making that honors the mission of the company.