That means that fathers don't have to drinking Friday evening and can be with their families. It means that parents who pick up kids after work are not disadvantaged by it. It means primary caregivers (women) have smaller hit on their career then they would otherwise. It means that people can so sport on Fridays, abstinents do well, anyone can use Friday evening to travel.
It is not merely mildly manipulative. It is literally bad office politics framed as "being social". Peers being passive aggressive is no different from management being manipulative or passive aggressive.
Lastly, it also means that I can make open transparent agreements about my work and preferences and salary compensation. Because in your setup, such things are not talked about openly and conflicts are not solved directly.
In my experience they are closely related.
> You also openly say that you trust people work based on Friday beer
Sure - there is an incredible depth of research on trust building via outside of work/after work activities.
> That sounds like horrible workplace
Strange considering I work at companies regularly listed in “best companies to work for” surveys.
As in, they are fun places if you single, but if you don't want to offload all children or sick relatives care to partner, you will be punished for drinking with buddies less. Your actual in-the-workplace behavior and output will be irrelevant.
They are fun places because of ping pong table and x-box console, but you wont be able to make explicit agreements about your workload and nature of work.
That sounds like not listening to people about things they might be good at and know something about, because you want to punish them for something completely unrelated. Namely, punish them for not participating in "optional" activities. All the while you don't want to openly and transparently say what you expect from people.
Yes, it is manipulative and it is bad workplace.
> It’s like our after work Friday drinks are entirely optional - but lots of people build friendships and trust there and this can often lead to higher productivity.
It sounds sounds like nepotism where your ability to function and be promoted rests on your ability to make friends and be charming around beer.
No a meritocracy, but rather badly managed workplace.
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Seriously, you openly say that you would listen and judge system stability suggestions based on participation in supposedly optional activity unrelated to system stability. You also openly say that you trust people work based on Friday beer instead on how they act when working.
That sounds like horrible workplace for anyone who care about work and great workplace for charming bullshitters.