Linked – The Gratitude We Need to Question
I’ll be honest: these LinkedIn posts also make me cringe.
Something has been weighing on me lately. I keep seeing posts across my social media feeds – heartfelt messages from people thanking their employers for “allowing” them to be fully present during life’s most profound moments. A wedding day. The birth of a child. A parent’s final breath. A long-planned family vacation.
The reasons are similar to those Jen writes in the link below. Why are we thanking our employers for doing the bare minimum? Offering PTO and letting people use it isn’t worthy of unending gratitude. It’s part of the employment handbook.
So often when I see someone thanking their team for doing so much work to cover for them so they could take a trip they’d been dreaming about for a week or two, I think about how poorly that team must be designed that one person taking time off causes such massive disruption. It shouldn’t. Every person on your team has an entire life outside of work. That so many of us feel lucky if we get to live any of it proves that our workplace systems and expectations are out of whack.
I’m amazed that we live in a world where we consider it lucky that we can attend our kids’ weddings, family gatherings, etc., without a work interruption instead of a world where work wouldn’t dream of expecting you to do anything but attend those events fully.
But we do, and I expect that will get worse with the current administration and its corporation-friendly policies.
On the other hand, if you’re in management, ask yourself this question. Is that call, email, etc., more important than all other areas of your employee’s life? If you’re honest with yourself, I bet it’s not. Can you set that example?
https://jenfisher.substack.com/p/the-gratitude-we-need-to-question
