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Jake Garretson
November 5, 2014
Mini Ethnography
Professor: Malcolm Campbell
Many people around the world are working for an employer or with fellow employees.
The majority of people are not the man in charge and that is whom I am writing about. The
employees and the people who do the dirty work. This paper will be about a group of employees
in the workplace. I will explain how they interact and how they communicate with each other. I
will also explain what actions they took and why they did them. Then Ill provide and describe
my observations and show you any patterns that exist in their life as an employee.
I chose to observe the employees that I work with. The reason I chose this group is
because it is a small and very tightly nit group of only 5 people (including myself). We work at a
home dcor store located in Charlotte near North Lake mall (in order to protect identities I will
not reveal the store name nor the names of my coworkers). It is a fairly large store of
approximately 25,000 square feet, that sells seasonal decorations. The store is part of a larger
chain of 6 total stores and is the smallest of them all. There are 2 managers: an assistant manager
and the head store manager. Then there are also 5 hourly employees and those employees are who
I have decided to do my research on.
When I first started to observe them I realized that the main topic of many discussions
were typically sports. Even the women would refer to sports. When the store was empty of
customers and they had no tasks to complete they would often refer to sports as an interesting
topic and as something to make conversation about in order to pass time. Most of the time they
would be speaking about the Carolina Panthers (the local NFL team). Another common topic
amongst them was any kind of gossip or ridicule of the managers, they often spoke poorly of the
managers and spread rumors about them. This was a popular discussion topic when employers
were nowhere around.

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I also noticed that many of the employees would choose to partake in joke telling and
talking rather than doing the job. Telling jokes and using sarcasm was commonplace here.
Sarcastic statements and sarcasm were used mostly to tell funny stories and jokes. The sarcasm
had come to a point that sometimes I did not recognize the sarcasm when they used it and I was
unaware of the joke being told. Another observation that I made was that they had many inside
jokes (jokes only people whom work with them would understand). One example would be when
one coworker said I bet the manager would scream like a girl and run if he saw how many
customers were in here right now. He was referring to another time when the manager had a
hard time dealing with a large deal of customers at once. You would not understand this if you
were not a working with these people.
Furthermore, they speak using words that are typical in a workplace but may not be
understood by people outside as in receiving, backroom, safe room, inquiry, item number, UPC
code, item description, POS software, and count. These are all commonly used words that are
descriptive of the workplace and their jobs in the workplace. That leads me in to the fact that they
have all found their part of the team, where they belong and how they fit into the group. They
know who does what, how they do it, and why they do it.
Now to put sense to my observations; as I stated earlier in the paper, gossip was
commonplace and was a popular discussion topic. I believe this is because they all shared a place
underneath the managers on the pyramid (the pyramid would be referring to a hierarchy schemed
government of people who are at the top have the most power). But I believe this is mostly
because the spread of the gossip helps them bond as a team and come closer together. It sounds
wrong that they would come together over demeaning others, but I believe it to be true. Clifton B.
Parker from the Stanford News said ,Groups do even better if they can gossip and ostracize
untrustworthy members. While both of these behaviors can be misused, our findings suggest that
they also serve very important functions for groups and society. Therefore I have come to
believe that their gossiping is to serve the purpose of something almost like a bonding experience.

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I also think believe that the rumors and gossiping can keep employees from making
common mistakes. For example when one employee makes a mistake and receives a consequence
from an authority figure the others hear and pass on the news. This keeps employees from making
mistakes that other people have already made. Another statement from Clifton B. Parker was
The researchers found that when people learn through gossip about the behavior of others,
they use this information to align with those deemed cooperative. It is almost like natural
selection, when an animal finds something that works or makes a mistake they learn and correct
said mistake, this is the same for the animals around them. I believe these employees are doing
the same thing.
Another observation that I made is the common use of humor in the work place. They
seemed to have a knack for sarcasm and enjoyed using inside jokes. When the coworkers make
jokes and relate to each other they are strengthening their bond and becoming more of a team. It
seems as if the jokes and the distractions from the task at hand would cause problems in the
workplace, but it actually helps. When one person tells a joke to lighten the mood it helps settle
people and makes for a more trust worthy environment.
The jokes are used as conversational tool and to create a relationship between coworkers.
They use a joke to start a conversation or to just make the overall attitude of the group become
more energetic as opposed to slow and boring. Charles Q. Choi said Studies found that
humorparticularly joking around concerning things associated with the job actually has a
positive impact in the workplace. They are using laughter and comedy to rid of awkward
situations and to better the relationship between each other. When they joke they are actually
impacting the communication and relationships in a good way.
To summarize, my observations have showed me that humor and gossip are a huge part
of the relationship between employees. But, from research I have done, I have come to believe
that this behavior is used to enhance relationships and the work environment not to undermine or

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disturb. I believe these behaviors have a positive influence on the workplace and will forever
continue with my coworkers.