State of Work is Taking a Toll
I had the most wonderful and inspiring coffee with a former colleague and friend. She had very exciting news to share with me. She had left her job and was preparing for a year of decompressing from a career where decisions that impacted the trajectory of people’s lives was the focus.
She had been in this job for 15 fantastic years. She grew in both her skill and her knowledge to become a member of the leadership team. She was respected, did important work, and made a great salary for the field.
But the current state of what work looks like in our society was taking a toll on her mental and emotional health. She carried two cell phones. She didn’t feel she could use her saved up vacation time because the burden upon returning was too much. Back-to-back Zoom calls and the lack of candidates to fill vacant positions was only adding to the work burden.
“I was finding that Zoom calls filled my calendar every day with no transition time to get a snack or a bio break. And then when the ‘work day’ ended, I’d start on my actual tasks and projects. I was working every night and on weekends. It wasn’t sustainable.”
For years she had advocated for self-care for others while not extending the same grace to herself. She pointed out the need to care for the employees in leadership meetings and eventually was put in charge of a committee to try and solve the burnout problem. When it was time to report back on what they’d learned and recommended, they couldn’t schedule a meeting because everyone was so overwhelmed!
She doesn’t blame the leaders of the organization, stating that they are as overwhelmed as anyone. In fact, the work pressures make it nearly impossible to identify what is at the crux of the incoming tide of demands and how to resolve it.
Taking time to look at the problem systematically, and for more than an hour at a time, feels like an unaffordable luxury.
Yet staff continue to leave or decline promotions with more responsibility, even when there is a bump in pay. They see the two cell phones, the work days that don’t end, and the toll it takes on personal lives, and they don’t want that.
This is only one of the dozens of times I’ve heard this similar story. I have a large client who is facing unprecedented voluntary resignations because people want to leave the high stress work environment for a lower paying job that allows them to focus on family. And I know another organization that can’t persuade any internal candidates to step into management for the same reasons.
We must take the time to have deep conversations which get past the symptoms of the problem and into the root causes and strategize about how work can look and be done differently.
Without action, the companies and organizations we depend on will implode.
They can’t stay viable without people. And people have decided during the past 3-4 years that money is not the most important thing. They can live with less money but they can’t live with less of a life. We’ve become acutely aware that our time on this earth is limited and more and more people are making choices about how they want to spend that time. Careers and work are moving down the priority list.
The impact is huge.
I can facilitate your organization’s discussion about how to really begin paying attention and how to shift your workplace. We can’t solve everything, but together, we began to have the kind of deep conversations that can make a positive impact. Schedule a call with me to discuss a private session for you and your team.