Leaning into 'anti-workism'

Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to

Richard Branson

I can count on two hands the amount of times I’ve heard ‘surviving not thriving’ in the past week, when asking friends how they are getting on at work. I’ve definitely been guilty of saying it myself in the past and there is often more than just one reason - but what is now known as ‘workism’ is often the biggest emulsifier of this feeling.

With it generally being acknowledged that at least 1/3rd of your life is spent at work, the impact your work has on your state of mind will directly impact your wider life.

So with that, in this weeks edition we are looking into the concept of ‘anti-workism’ and how it can be used as a tool rather than a weapon to your business.

Looking at:

• What is ‘anti-workism’ and why is it prevalent now
• How to use the concept for the better
• The Salesforce approach to a happy and engaged team

What is ‘anti-workism’ and why is it prevalent now

The term ‘workism’ was coined by journalist Derek Thompson in 2019 to describe the toxic over-commitment to work, comparable to religion, which was leading people to feel ultimately disappointed at work. As Thompson famously said “our desks were never meant to be altars” - so why were we fostering this ‘married to your work’ concept?

With the pandemic we saw the focus shifting in peoples lives, from the emphasis being on work to family, friends and health - and it’s proving difficult (rightly) to go back to a pre-pandemic state of mind. As a result, especially within companies enforcing specific ways of working and limiting autonomy, there is a rise in 'anti-workism' which is building unenthused and disengaged teams who are essentially doing the bare minimum.

In order for businesses to continue to grow in this environment and get the best out of their teams, we must recognise that ‘workism’ is dead.

Cultural initiatives will beat your enforced working strategy any day. So instead of thinking about how to combat this 'anti-workism' culture with further restrictions and harsh terms, how about we lean into building more of a supportive and trusting environment to build engaged and emotive teams?

How to use the concept for the better

There’s a bunch of ways to lean into the 'anti-workism' culture, whilst still encouraging a high performing environment, here’s a few ideas:

Horizontal structures

• The flatter your org chart, the more likely you’re giving teams the space for autonomous work.
• It also removes the ego in the office space when you're not visually separated from more senior members.

Show them you genuinely care

• Sounds so simple but so many businesses are run as corporate prisons rather than a supportive team environment - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this needs to come from the top down!!
• A great place to start is by asking your team what they would change. For example at Passionfruit we received some feedback that a regular meeting we had actually interfered with some members home lives, especially those with kids, so we acted straight away and moved the meeting to a more accessible time for the parents. To add to this we have built out a policy whereby meetings should try to stick to specific working hours to accommodate the varying lives of our team.
• We’ve also brought in a team lunch policy where remote teams can expense a lunch whilst the office based team get a lunch order in. This, whilst a small gesture, reminds the team that we care about everyone having equal access to perks and benefits, no matter your working situation.

Flexible working

• Something that ties into both of the above points is allowing for flexible working opportunities. You can’t have a flat structure without allowing your team to choose which hours (within reason) are their most effective. For example if a team member wants to use an hour and a half at lunch to pop to the gym, why not test it out for a while and see how they get on. I’d almost guarantee that not only will they come back feeling energised and ready to power through work, but they’ll also feel immense ownership of their working life in a way that disassembles 'workism' culture.
• It might not be a gym session at lunch, but perhaps an early start and and early finish to be able to pick their kids up from school. Or an afternoon break to go to the dentist, or a last minute request to take a mental health day.
• I guarantee that implementing more flexible ways of operating will drive down this 'anti-workism' mentality.

Sticking to what you promised

• Arguably the most important takeaway from this - you must ensure you’re sticking to your promises. If you don’t you’ll be leaving team members feeling that same ‘desk is an altar’ feeling where they are disappointed that it’s not what they bought into and their expectations are not met.

???Company spotlight ??

Founder Marc Benioff , famous for starting one of the leading software companies in the world, is almost as popularly known for his philanthropy. Alongside personal contributions (hundreds of millions) to children's hospitals, and being extremely vocal on topics such as women’s rights, equal pay and LGTQ rights - he also guides the philanthropic vision internally to salesforce.

A clear example is the implementation of the 1-1-1 model.

This means that the company commits 1% of their equity, technology, and employees time to build a more equitable and sustainable world. Whilst partly a financial commitment, what really stands out internally is that they genuinely care about building an environment that fosters looking after one another and the planet.

Getting behind such an impactful mission, alongside your day to day work, drives this feeling of anti-work. Work is not a chore if you’re given the allowance to be and feel human. It also is a reminder to the team that they appreciate work is not your whole life - they actively fight against the 'workism' culture through these initiatives.

I’d argue this is a big part of the reason that Salesforce is the giant it is today. Look after your team and they’ll look after you.

“The business of business is not business. The business of business is improving the state of the world”

Marc Benioff

What we’re reading

• The era of workism is over, and HR needs to act
• Why salesforce is a great place to work
• Workism and how we forgot we are more than our job