Cultivating a more human / humane work culture
3 months ago, a Dear Friend was suddenly hospitalised and had a surgery to remove the gallbladder that was inflamed and perforated. No one knows what caused the inflammation and perforation, when no gallstones were found, not even the doctors, and everyone is thankful that it was discovered in time to prevent a more detrimental and severe outcome. I can only attribute the inflammation to accumulated stress from work and life in general, that built up over time, and manifested through the body, psychosomatically.
After a month of hospitalisation leave, and adjusting to a new diet and lifestyle with the removal of the gallbladder, Dear Friend returned to work. Still in recovery, from not just the physical trauma, but also from the mental and emotional trauma, from this sudden onset of events and the whole unfolding of the situation. Only to be sarcastically mocked by the colleagues, for having taken such a long leave, and for them to bear the burden of Dear Friend’s work. And that Dear Friend owed them big time, for taking over the work that was due.
These statements and behaviors added on to Dear Friend’s already trauma-ed state, and the pressure to quickly resume back to “normal”, back to the “usual” rigor of work, gave Dear Friend more stress, to body, mind and spirit. The concern was, of course, would this increase in stress, cause a relapse, or another manifestation through the body. At least, that was my concern.
And this is just one of the examples of many that can be heard in (and from) the workplace, of how, because there might be a lack of care of the people, and unconsciousness of the pressures of work.
Over three Saturdays in October this year, I’ve heard several stories and narratives amongst participants, who were involved in the Youth Mental Wellbeing Network, share about how they were discriminated by their employers, after they found out that these participants experience mental health challenges. Hosted by a multi-government agency secretariat, I facilitated the groups that discussed how youths can be better supported in their transition to the workplace. Many of the participants were youths themselves, either about to graduate from Institutes of Higher Learning, or have been in the workforce for a few years; A handful of participants were from organisations who are advocates to support the youth in their mental wellbeing, and/or want to reach out to companies and organisations, to educate them in these areas of mental wellbeing and mental health, so that they might be a more conducive environment for employees to thrive and flourish, and that mental health challenges can be normalised and better supported.
One of the stories that left a deep impression with me was about how, one of the participant’s direct supervisor mentioned the following statements (as how the participant narrated it) :
• “If we had known that you had this condition, we would not have offered you a 3-year bond.”
• “The next time you feel anxious and overwhelmed, and cannot function well enough to conduct the meetings, please inform me in advance, so that I can take over the meeting on your behalf.” (Participant would probably be in a state of nausea and vomiting, and having difficulty to pull him/herself together, to be able to make any calls to start with. And possibly this “attack” also happened suddenly, so how to inform in advance?)
When this same participant shared with a more senior colleague at work, that he/she needs to take time off to go and meet with the psychiatrist, the colleague asked : “Eh, did you share this with HR? Cannot lah… HR might penalise you leh… Then will affect your performance review and promotions, etc.”
Mind you, this participant is a high performer in school, probably while heavily medicated, for the company to have hired him/her, and offered a 3-year bond. And yet, now on this discovery of mental health challenges, it seemed to become a “problem”, and perhaps might be dismissed, because he/she is not deemed to provide the value in which he/she was first hired to provide? Since when humans become objects to enhance performance and productivity?
When this point was brought up, another participant chimed in to share that, he/she did not feel safe to share this kind of information with potential employers, and at networking events with alumni, in the hope of of joining the companies in future. And yet, struggle with how to eventually having to take time off to visit the psychiatrist for appointments or on days that he/she does not feel well, mentally and/or emotionally. And that was when even more participants chimed in to share about not feeling psychologically safe in workplaces. Schools provide a much safer sapce, and therefore this transition from school to the workplace becomes challenging.
And it is not only amongst those who face mental health challenges. It is also with those who might be caregivers to family members. Which brings me to my own personal story, of gaining employment with a large oil and gas company.
It is an MNC, and goes through an employment agency to hire contract staff for an L&D position. All discussions and interviews went well, until the point when we were negotiating the contract.
In the contract, there was a term that offers “7 days childcare leave”. I shared with the company and the employment agency that I am single, and have aging parents, so perhaps, it might be better to change that term in the contract to “7 days parent care leave”, to be able to suit my circumstance better. I will have no use of childcare leave, since I do not have children of my own.
The response that came back was “This is a standard clause in contracts, and we cannot change this clause.” This response was from the employment agency. An appeal was made to the company, to ask the employment agency to change the clause, and there was no response from the company. And thus, we arrived at a stalemate, and I eventually did not join the company.
What I could not comprehend was, why was it so difficult to accede this request? I was not asking for more leave, or higher compensation. It was just changing the term from “childcare” to “parent care”. And if it sets precedence for a kinder company, towards the needs of the employees, how is that a bad thing? Will being a kinder more human/humane company impact productivity and bottom line in a negative way.
There are role model companies to demonstrate that, in fact, a kinder, more compassionate, more human/humane company produces better performance and results overall.
Google is one famous example where its “Project Aristotle” demonstrates how providing a psychological safe environment at work supports its staff mentally and emotionally to take risks, and continuously create the good work it produces, through its apps, its platforms, etc.
A more local example, here in Singapore, is Teo Heng KTV (https://mothership.sg/2020/10/teo-heng-ktv-perspective/). During this COVD-19 pandemic period, it has been doing its best to take care and support its staff, financially, mentally and emotionally, holding out for as long as it can, to pay them, send them for courses and engaging them meaningfully through conversations and rotating shift work.
When things do get better, and business can resume, what do you think will be the outcome of such compassionate gestures? The staff will be back in full force, and so will their clients, who have seen them put in so much heart to take care of the people. You may say, “That is being overly optimistic.” and my response is, “Let’s wait and see, shall we?” Because, I will patronise their outlets to sing to my heart’s content. And perhaps more than once. And I will recommend family and friends to patronise them too. They may not have the best song selections, their rooms might be smaller than others. But all those don’t matter. Because what matters is, people will continue to have their jobs and take care of their families. On a larger scale, the impact psychologically, not just in this business alone, but in community, is far larger, as these staff families also feel safe and taken care of. They are also then able to feel less stressed in their workplaces and in school, helping to also cushion the overall impact / effect of the pandemic.
This is the butterfly effect of cultivating a more human / humane culture in the workplace. Especially since we spend more than half of our waking hours at work, how we thrive and flourish at work, will also have a significant impact on how we thrive and flourish in so many other aspects of our lives.
