IIDA Perspective - Spring/Summer 2016 - 47

That brings up a good
point-does firm size really
play a role in how politics
influence work culture?

ENIGL I think that firms under 50 people have more of an extended family feel, it's
smaller, the principals usually know everyone by name. They work on projects more
closely together and designers will often wear more hats, they'll often do project
management and design. They have to be a good functioning team. Once you get over
100 employees, percentages come into play and it's harder for management to be day
to day with everyone, to have that face to face time and know every issue that's going
on. It changes the dynamic of the problems that people have. The smaller the firm
the more the sense there is that "we're all in this together," and the less politics come
into play.
MARQUARDT I kind of beg to differ. I led my own firm for years, and now I'm back at a
larger firm. I think there are politics at both-it really depends on the personality of
the firm. Smaller firms just have different types of politics-a lot of it depends on
who the firm leaders are. Sometimes you hear designers say that they feel like they're
designing for two clients-the leader of the firm, and then the actual client. But for
the person who runs the company-Felice, you know this-their name is on the door,
and so they need to figure out how to manage that. I think a lot of it has to do with
what type of authority and responsibility you give to employees at a small firm.
I know I get the best work from employees when they have ownership over a project,
but that means as a manager I have to suspend a certain amount of my own contri-
bution to let them grow. And that's a very scary thing for people in management
positions. It means having to be secure in yourself and your ability to lead people and
be a mentor, and at the same time have confidence in who you've hired to be able to
follow through.
SILVERMAN I think a good small firm does have that feeling that everyone is in it
together, working toward the same goal. And I agree that whatever's happening
in a small firm is a reflection on each individual-it's hard to hide from things at
a smaller firm and you have to be out there and transparent. I see that as a positive.
I think it leads to illuminating some of that negativity. It goes back to the definition
of office politics and whether it's necessarily a bad thing, or whether it's a little bit
of how the engine works.
MARQUARDT

Right.

SILVERMAN Competition is not always a bad thing, people should be figuring out how
to advance their careers and working the system to some degree. But it doesn't have
to necessarily be a negative-I don't see it that way at our firm. But I definitely have
experience seeing other firms or being in a larger firm where there are cliques and
people can focus on personal gain to the detriment of others, and that's when it
becomes a negative.
ENIGL I would totally agree with that. Thinking about millennials especially-at the
smaller firms that I've been with, the millennials there like to participate and they
want to work together. But at larger firms, there do tend to be more cliques and
politics comes into play a little bit more. Although millennials like transparency, they
also have a lot of student debt to pay. I mostly see it happen when the promotions
come around-people believing that they got promoted strictly on a political basis
and not based on work. That's the point where you start to see the most politicking.
SILVERMAN I was wondering whether it's different in different economies. I guess the
thinking is that in a good economy we're all busy and working and there's a lot going
on, but in a worse economy people might be looking out for themselves more.
ENIGL I think when things start going south and the economy dips a little bit, politics
can come into play. With layoffs certainly, office politics can play a role. Not always,
every firm is different of course.
SILVERMAN Being the principal at a small firm, I haven't been in that situation for quite
some time. But from what I remember, as an employee at a larger firm twenty years
ago, I recall the politics being amped up and people sort of vying for themselves when
we had layoffs. And the people who were the noisiest, the complainers, they were
the first to go.
PERSPECTIVE

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