BY THE WAY: Why did I call this “Episode 21?”
In Episode 27 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”
This one is made by employers/managers to their employees. It goes like this: “It may have been a long time since I was last a ‘blue collar’ worker, or perhaps I have never been anything but ‘well off.’ This may cause me and my employees to think we do not have much in common, and in certain instances, this may be so. The entire point of The Happywork Agreement is to foster understanding by at least imagining what it’s like to walk in each other’s shoes, so I will try to do so if you, the employee, will try.”
You can’t truly understand other people until you walk in their shoes. At work, ownership and the rank and file are most often really different kinds of people. Fine champagne and Busch beer mixed together, so to speak. They awkwardly join up at work and try to make a go of it, but they don’t understand each other. Employees really don’t know how hard it to run a company. “Cush jobs” at the top, they think. Far from it! And most of the time, ownership doesn’t really know what workers go through. They lack the perspective to understand their employees, what goes on in their personal lives, what it’s like to juggle tight finances … and that makes me think that they may not be well-suited to construct a workplace that takes the needs of employees into account.
And, when you don’t understand where others are coming from, you’ll often find yourself unnecessarily at odds with them. Not considering the point of view of others, and WHY they have that point of view, has led to some of our planet’s deadliest wars. You can be sure this causes problems at work, too!
Of course, you have the option to ignore the needs of your employees, but that’s just stupid.
Construct a happy workplace by looking at your organization from the point of view of your employees.
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