Every company has its own culture; the values for which it stands, the ethos under which it operates and the expectations it sets for its staff.

This official culture, however, is rarely the only one an employee ever experiences. Delve beneath the surface and you’ll find a world of microcultures: little silos of work practices, norms and behaviours that differ from the official line.

Common identities, roles, personalities, locations: any group of employees can form and foster a microculture, and while they initially develop within their own sphere, they can also bridge departments and connect individuals across an organisation.

You’ll never see any mentions of microcultures in HR handbooks or other official company documents, but they all play a role of some sort in framing how a workforce operates, reacts or interacts – sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse.

Our research tells us that a company’s microculture can have significant influence on an employee’s wellbeing. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive on the role that microcultures play in the workplace and how to manage them.

More mixed messaging, more employee headaches

The challenge of workplace microcultures lies in their invisibility. While formal company policies may promote proactive health, microcultures can establish their own set of unspoken rules and erase boundaries, disrupting workplace wellness practices.