Is Work Your Most Intimate Relationship?
The myth of corporate wellness
Corporate wellness programs have been around for yonks. These programs focus on topics like resilience management, health assessments, stress reduction and work/life balance, and change management. Let’s be real though, there is only one aim of corporate wellness programs -- to increase employee productivity and business profitability. Healthy employees equals healthy business. And, if money is the motivating factor which results in healthier humans – Heck, I'll take it.
Champagne is for drinking, not showering.
The traditional models of corporate health and wellness will not work for the future workforce. Employees are increasingly looking to their employer to help meet their individual needs, their relational needs and contribute to their sense of purpose. For the past few decades we have bred a society which celebrates Workism and ‘hustle-culture’. A culture in which, you and you alone are responsible for your success. That by simply willing yourself to be successful, it will happen and the ultimate show of “making it” is hosting a pool-side champagne shower before zipping away in your Maserati to the local marina where your 100FT yacht awaits to take you to the waters just off the Mediterranean coast with a staff of young, good -looking twenty something years olds waiting to satisfy your every whim. (I really should stop binge-watching Below Deck Med).
We have celebrated professional success over personal accomplishment for far too long. When the generations before us viewed work as a necessity to meet survival needs and as the simple exchange of their time and skills for money, we see work as the very thing that should meet not only our basic survival needs but also our need for community, connection and purpose. This is a result of companies having demanded their employees to give their physical and emotional energy to their work and to prioritise work above all other things. It’s no wonder then, that employees are expecting their workplaces to be the all-encompassing centre for friendship, community, health, purpose and self-worth. It’s not at all a surprise that the workplace has become the most intense and intimate relationship in some people’s lives. And, just like any intimate relationship we turn to it for love, friendship and comfort, thus emotionally attaching our feelings of confidence, self-worth and esteem onto our work performance. When we perform poorly at work it shakes our confidence. When we perform well at work, we get the much-needed hit of serotonin.
What have we done?!
Companies have intentionally curated this intimate relationship and wooed their employees in. It’s now time for them to step up and take on the responsibility. Companies have become like a parent who houses, feeds and educates their child but is never there to cheer at swimming carnivals, school presentations or dance recitals. The child’s basic survival and financial needs are being met though all other human needs for connection are being ignored. On occasion, the company will send a nice little gift basket, maybe a dozen donuts or a fancy hamper full of sweetly salted delicious snacks. Some of these gifts come with nice little instructions about which hashtag to use when posting on socials. #lovemyjob #bestjobever
Down with the Donuts!
This is tokenistic bullshit and it needs to stop. It’s time for companies to genuinely listen to what employees need and want. It starts with creating safe inclusive spaces for employees to be honest without fear of repercussions or consequence. It’s time to make changes to workflows, provide appropriate tools and equipment, and to give them real time off.
It’s time for companies to step up. Paying wages is not enough, employees need and want a supportive community, connection and purpose. Now. Right Now. You have the power to create change.
Cheers for now, -Rhea.