The Magic & Madness of Workplaces (Toxic or Not)

Happy Wednesday Fam!

The phenomenal Maya Angelou once said “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

I often contemplate how thriving in our work lives with some humor looks and feels like when practiced consistently.

I am a champion of humane & healthy workplaces. Our firm strives to work with organizations that put humans at the core of their strategy and mission. We succeed sometimes. We fail sometimes.

In between I am caught up wondering if we take the nature of workplaces and the events of our jobs too seriously. A too serious dream that lacks the context of the complexities of workplaces.

I mean workplaces can be fun, annoying, strange, depressing, toxic, human, caring, mission driven, oppressing, fun, challenging, rewarding, unhealthy, supportive, collaborative, or not, flexible, fast-paced, inspiring, demotivating, and so on.

In short workplaces can be EVERYTHING. Fluid, dynamic, and forever determined by the spirit and ways of being of the leaders. To expect perfection I believe is an elusive game. Humans create organizations. Humans are perfectly imperfect.

However what might be helpful is for us to learn the craft of collaborating and tolerating each other’s wildness with a little compassion and skill. We often joke about ‘trying not to kill each other’. And yet workplace related suicides continue to rise. According to this article workplaces suicides in the US were up 39% since 2000.

Hard fact. Having worked with over 300 organizations, I know finding a great - humanely healthy organization is rare. Simply because it takes time, effort, energy, strategy, resources, and dedicated leadership to create such. To impactfully make this a norm in workplaces, we might need to fight a bigger dragon. Capitalism. A fight I am certain winning is not guaranteed.

Thus, sadly, very few of us will end up in aligned, humanly healthy organizations.

So what do we do inbetween which is when we really get to live and experience work? The inbetween that could be 30, 40 or even 50 and more years we might live working? (The thought makes me shudder).

A quote that comes to mind in response to this existential dilemma is by Robbin Williams, ''The only weapon we have is the comedy''

Maybe there is a space for us to let in some humor through the broken cracks of the not so good aspects of workplaces. Lighten up our expectations a little. Maybe it's time to hold loosely our beliefs about how workplaces should be. Maybe it's time to accept our values are constantly evolving as we evolve. And that doesn't necessary reflect badly for the organization we work for. It's simply our time to move on. Maybe it's time to reevaluate our perceptions of each other's wildness. Time to embody our unique differences as part of the magic and the madness that make workplaces come alive. And coming alive is not a question of perfection.

Maybe there is space for us to remember we are all making stuff up. Founders, leaders, and employees alike. On the go. Winging our way to success. And whether whether this is all a simulation or a legendary journey in which we are a tiny dot in the creation of another 10 billion years of humanity, perhaps at the end of it all, it might mean something for our souls to thrive with some passion, compassion and humor...

So today I compiled some memes...

How do people do this with a straight face!

Cheers bye.

When zoom is office

Blame the paycheck

Sad short story. When will I live?!

The amount of feelings that go with this sign off

Uhhhmmmm

That's not what we meant

Joyfully

Lume De Luna