I’m sure at some point, Elon Musk thought for sure that he could buy Twitter and do a better job of content moderation. I’m sure most of us have had a similar thought. We just didn’t have $44 billion lying around.
He did, and now he gets to realize something the rest of us should know by now. There’s no easy way to do 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?
Organizations that like to complain about not being able to find talent but also don’t bother to develop it are just leeches on their industry. Do you want more people skilled in cybersecurity or any other skill you’re having trouble finding? Teach it. Develop it. Grow it.
It’s not easy, but that’s how you address a lack of skilled workers. Educational and systemic changes are going to take way too long.
If you read the article below, you’ll notice that we aren’t talking about paying college tuition or anything like that. We’re talking about standard, company-wide training sessions that only served to make sure new employees understand things that many of them already knew.
That’s insane. Basic onboarding and continued training of employees is a necessity in 2022. You cannot be a successful business if you are not actively improving the skills of the people who work for you. It’s a cost of doing business. It’s a benefit for your employees that helps in retaining top talent and also happens to make improve your bottom line. It is the ultimate win-win.
Herein lies the problem that many of our younger employees see and refuse to play along with. Why should our choices be between making a comfortable wage and living outside of work? Why do we live in a world where we have to “quit” being engaged in our work or decide against fully engaging in our families and communities? Moms have had to make this choice for years. Be a good mom and care for your children by lessening your career opportunities, or be a bad mom and focus on your career.
Why is that the choice?
I see article after article talking about the “loss” of productivity to companies when employees are not fully engaged. Still, no one ever calculates the loss in our communities from people who contribute nothing outside of their job. We don’t put a number on the damage done when fathers are uninvolved in kids’ lives or on the missed mental health benefits of being involved in hobbies, friendships, and community groups.