I’m sure there are still some “old-school” bosses running around who believe the best way to motivate employees is to threaten them and never let them forget that they can be fired at a moment’s notice.
Turns out that they aren’t motivating as much as actively harming them.
Don’t get me wrong. I would have still spent some time reviewing the document before the meeting, making notes, and mapping out plans after the other meeting. But because these were not in the middle of back-to-back meetings, I could do them and keep the flow through the process. I wasn’t filing it away in my brain and hoping I could fully recall it later. It was fresh.
It was better.
More importantly, consider what you communicate in your actions when someone does take PTO. Does everyone on the team email them while they are out so they can get a response as soon as they are back? Do you cram in a bunch of meetings or work they need to do before leaving?
Do you think this helps them feel less stressed?
It’s much more likely that they’ll take PTO but not get any benefits from being away from work. That’s missing the point entirely.
These people have watched companies “reward” the loyalty of Boomer and Gen X employees with layoffs, unfunded pensions, forced retirements, etc. They aren’t going to be loyal for the sake of loyalty to a company that will cut their job at the first sniff of an economic downturn. They will go to the place that benefits them the most.
If you’re not interested in providing skills and career development, don’t expect people to work for you. It’s not worth it.
I’ve heard of companies “green-washing” talking a good game about their work on climate change while also continuing to be a large contributor to it, but in the area of wellbeing, this was a new one. Except, it isn’t a new idea. This study asked employees at UK companies if the public statements about mental health and employee support match what is happening within the company itself. Many said that the public supportiveness did not match the internal work culture. That’s not anything new. I think we have all worked somewhere or have heard plenty of stories about workplaces where the public face of the company or even the internal HR face talks quite a lot about how much they focus on employee wellness but apparently, no one told the middle managers about it.
The disappointing thing is that it’s primarily women walking away from these companies. I think everyone should. If your organization ran successfully with flexible work and a better focus on wellness and mental health initiatives, and now they want to go back to 2019, they are not well-run.
There is no reason to think those organizations will be flexible and nimble enough to navigate the future. Why stay?