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This Labor Day, how would you change our work culture?

Daily | September 1st, 2008 by Danielle LaPorte

    In honor of Labor Day in North America, we turn to poet Kahlil Gibran who said, “Your work is your love made visible.” But somewhere between 9 to 5 and corporate policy the love is oh-so easy to lose.

    Let My People Go SurfingCarrie says: Equal pay for equal work: SAME QUALIFICATIONS + SAME JOB = SAME PAY. Employers can’t pay you less or more just because you’re a man or woman. That’s discrimination and it’s not allowed.

    The facts about equal pay for equal work. Women and men must receive equal pay when:

    1. Doing substantially the same kind of work.
    2. Requiring the same skill, effort and responsibility.
    3. Performed under similar working conditions in the same establishment.
     

    Danielle says: First of all, I think a 4 day work week would create a revolution in consciousness throughout the known galaxy. We’d be healthier and more connected and that would lead to all sorts of goodness and healing. (A lot of people would freak at first because they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves with an extra day off.) Secondly, the basic six weeks maternity leave in the US is horrifically inhumane. Here’s some perspective, in Canada, employees get a partially paid YEAR off for maternity. How’s that for civilized? The social consequences connected to mat leave go as far as mental health and crime rates. Thirdly: pantyhose and fluorescent lighting should be universally banned.
     

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Viewing 49 Comments

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    People should actually feel able to use the vacation time they are given. And along those same lines, the Europeans have the right idea in giving people more vacation days than most companies provide in the U.S.
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    C&D: Well put, sisters. To tie them together, male overtones in business must be softened. (A hard worker and shrewd businesswomen is a bitch. A woman who wants to take a few years out for motherhood can't get her job back. A woman who's up for a job shouldn't get it because she might have kids one day.) This is abhorrent behavior and should not be tolerated. And Europe has it right; four, five, six weeks' holiday a year, countless people working from home and help with child care costs. Finally, until universal health care is available in America, companies should be forced to provide substantial health care for ALL of their employees, not just white collar workers.
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    I think we need to recognize that workaholism is every bit as killing as alcoholism, drug, food or sex addiction. Instead people are asked and expected to work long hours and if they don't they jeopardize their careers. The impact of this on families can be devastating. Children are being raised by people other than their parents. I think this has led to an emphasis on sending children to school far too early. Instead of letting children BE children they are educated, monitored, medicated to keep them 'in line'. This denies them their unique personality and character so that we are developing 'robots'.

    So employers need to think about more than the so-called 'bottom line' and remember that they employ human beings - flawed, imperfect, wonderfully unique human beings who need every aspect of themselves nourished. They need to provide wellness days rather than 'sick' days then many people wouldn't take days off when they simply need to sleep in for a while, lay in the sun, work in their garden, walk on the beach rather than 'pretend' they are sick in order to do any or all of these things.

    We have bodies that need taking care of. We are NOT machines.
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    A definitely agree with Danielle: a 4-day week.
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    Yes! A four day week--we need an extra day to take care of personal business, even if that means sitting on the floor and counting lint balls. I think we should honor the Sabbath, no matter what religion or higher power a person chooses. Just one day--doesn't have to be Sunday--to understand the tradition of the Sabbath. The idea of at least one day of true rest is lost in this culture! I spend Sunday afternoons planning my work calendar, balancing my checkbook and paying bills, taking out the trash, etc. If I had more time during the week, I could learn how to set aside one day to do nothing and be grateful for the life I have. Something I want to work on anyway!

    Companies today see vacation time as a sign of weakness. We are made to feel guilty. I am going to take every hour afforded! It is part of my compensation!!!
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    if I could change only one thing it would be to erase the feeling of competition and scarcity between workers - for pay, for meaningful work, for jobs in general. this is what keeps us pitted against each other and divided so that we can't make large gains for all people. we fear we might lose the small piece of the pie that we've been able to get to survive; or if we haven't been able to get what we need to survive, we often fall victim to blaming immigrant workers, foreign workers (where jobs have been outsourced), etc. instead of examining the larger structure. oh, and motherhood should be recognized as work - hard work!
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    Bring back lunch hour! Stop, take time to relax, meet with friends, do a little brainstorming and networking. That's the way it's done in Europe. They think we're crazy because they get more done at lunch than we do at our desks.

    Move away from your desk, have a real meal, laugh and slow down. Get back to your job refreshed and refocused. Same time at work - more accomplished.

    That's it. I'm starting a weekly lunch group.
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    Treat the lack of respect for another person's job abuse. Eliminate forced retirement. Equal pay and treatment regardless of sex, religion, ethnic, or color differences. Raise the base wage to a livable wage. Insure and guarantee a safe work environment for all employees. Establish Omsbudsman programs to investigate, negotiate, and repair failed communications between employees, employees and bosses, and upper and lower mangement.
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    Our (North American) work culture is a product of our own making. If someone wants to work 4 days, choose to work only 4 days - but the thing is too often we want the perks without the pay. 4 day work week means fewer dollars in the bank account. Equal pay for equal work - one only gets that which one demands and will not settle for less. Using all our vacation, recognize that some jobs do not allow for the traditional vacation as the high paying jobs tend to be service/ information based jobs and the ability to transfer knowledge and information for a 3 week get away is not usually possible, so the cell phone has to go with. How often it is checked and responded to is up to each of individually. A CEO is never on vacation, even an evening out at the Opera is related to representing the company and developing relationships that will one day be used for a transaction within the company. I am no where near being a CEO but I recognize if I want that status and those perks, there is a lot that must be given up in personal freedoms. That is why I will settle for vice president some day... :)

    I have found everything my co-workers pine for in their work week is either within their control or available to them if they are willing to "pay the piper". As for the "maleness"and connotation of bitch if a shrewed business woman - I have found that language is mostly exacerbated by other women. Although I do know a few old boys here in the oil patch, they are becoming fossils.

    (side note re: European holidays - there are more days but the cell phone goes with and the overall pay is less in terms of standard of living - I know - I am over here for a year; time off for child rearing is 4 months vs 12 for Canadians - may be slightly differnt for different countries but Canadians have it really nice in some respects)

    I am definitely with Danielle on the abondonment of fluorescent lights and would like to throw out the "white noise" often piped in to offices as well.
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    I love your reply. I love my job (I teach at a community college) but outside of the classroom the politics in the office are all due to feelings of competition - wanting everybody wants things their own way instead of working together. We could all come to work with a positive attitude and work together it would produce a great place to work. It's so hard getting people to see what we have.
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    As the wife of a very hardworking man who hates his job, I'd like to see more people who throw aside the obsession with making more more more money and do what they love. If you don't enjoy your career, how can you ever be happy? More people should focus on what they enjoy and aim for that. When you have find that job, the amount of money you make is much less of an issue, I'm one of those people and rarely think about the huge paycut I took for my job.
    And I agree about the 4 day work week.
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    Shorter work week, slow down work pace. We tend to in order to keep a job these days need to eat, sleep, and breathe our work if we are in the corprate world and if not we still work at a much faster pace than that of other countries. Incorperate a more family orientated environment. My husband for our first child took a month off - he used ALL of his vacation time for it. Our second child he took 2 weeks off and the same for our 3rd... Why? Though we have FMLA, it is unpaid and our entire family suffered due to the practices that were in place at his job. Healthcare for ALL - this shouldn't matter where you work - the corner store or a bigger company. We have OK health care - major changes were made in the last contract, but we see our family who b/c they work at a gas station have very little health coverage, and some who have none, and this is the land of 'oppertunity'... Finally, all employees should have AT LEAST 1 day off per week, no matter how many parts or whatever is needed. One day that is to be spent with family. There used to be a law that noone could work on Sunday, what happened to that?
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    My dh has fallen for the same trap... With some encouragement, he is planning on leaving and taking steps now to leave his job and step into a new career. He's not only planning, but taking practical steps toward his goal.
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    How about the over all cultural view on not having a job, or measuring people by the job they have? I chose to be a mother who did not go out into the work force to pursue a career. I cooked from scrath, sewed my childrens clothes and some of my own and my husbands. I was a regular Suzy Home maker because that is what I wanted to do with my brains and skills. One day a friend of mine said to me "Colette, you have so much talent and brains you are just wasting by staying at home." Very indignantly I let her know that my boys - four of my own and two foster boys, were anything but a waste of my skills and abilities. Genetically I passed on to my birth sons those brains and talents and also taught them the skills I have with hands on training. I have sons who know how to cook, sew, clean, sing, play the piano and another instrument, be respectful of others and appreciate good hard work. I also was the Mom for many other kids in the town we lived in. Those who knew of our family knew we had an open door policy - literally- the door was never locked and my home was open for any one who needed a place to sleep, eat, wash their clothes, take a shower, some one to talk to or call and pick them up at 2 in the morning. This is who I chose to be, this is how I desired to play my role in society. Some people seem to be incapable of wrapping their mind around the concept that this is fulfilling. As for my sons, one is a medic in the Army, another a Marine Sgt. another a structural technician working on becocming and aircraft strucural engineer in the Air Force, one just graduated from College with a BA in Russian and speaks the language fluently, one foster son is in law school and the other foster son is working very hard to break the patterns of drugs, gambling, and abuse that are in his family. He is clean and has steady job and I am most proud of him because he had the biggest problems to over come.
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    I would eradicate the limiting belief that you can't make a living doing what you love.
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    I would like to see people take pride in their work. It seems that service & quality have been reduced to "good enough" instead of "excellent". It seems as if you can barely get anyone to smile, say thank you or please these days. Apathy has become the norm. Perhaps if we had better work/life balance, as suggested by all of us today, this attitude would shift?
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    Four-day work weeks, flexible hours, telecommuting where possible, longer vacations. I worked for a large company for 10 years where the benefits in this respect were great. I worked very long hours there, but in exchange, I had four weeks vacation, could get to work at 10:00, if I had to leave, it was never an issue, and they allowed telecommuting for non-managerial positions in most departments.
    Now I work in a smaller company (much closer to home which is the bonus) with very rigid rules. Two weeks vacation and you can't take it all at once; 9-5 in the office, no exceptions; and when you're needed, you are expected to work longer hours, no extra pay. However, when work is slow, you still have to be at your desk.
    Unfortunately, I think for the most part, this is still the U.S. norm, and it doesn't make much sense. We shouldn't be living to work. We should be working to live.
    If companies would consider their employees needs and adjust accordingly, they'd have much more productive, happier staffs.
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    I'd like to see traditionally women's roles valued. I am not a SAHM now but I did stay home with my daughter for her first 18 months. It was both terrifying and depressing how little I valued what that brought to the table, let alone what my husband, or even other women thought. I feel the same is true for teachers and virtually any profession that "nurturing" is part of the required skill set. I'd also like to see more companies recognize that giving their workers time for community service is far more bonding than any forced team-building experience. For myself, I work for and with my husband in an academic setting so I would like to see some job security for him and be able to get off the publish or perish roller coaster.
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    Check out the book Why Work Sucks: And How to Fix It, by Cali Ressler & Jody Thompson, and that is how I would change the culture of work in North America. Get paid for results, not TIME. Work whenever, however, wherever you want as long as you get the work done your time is your own. No meetings, no reporting every little absence or asking permission to be away from your desk - everyone is treated like an adult. Your employer doesn't own your time! I'm not affiliated with the authors in any way - I was just truly inspired by their book and their revolutionary program. Their blog is http://caliandjody.com/blog/ in case you want to check it out (again no affiliation).
    Most people that I talk to about this say "that won't work in my industry" but I think it could work in a number of industries - it just requires a complete reworking of our belief systems (i.e. we get paid for results not the hours we put at a desk).
    I have to laugh at my union's employment agreement - 99% of it is focused on time and how to account for it and 1% on results. It really shows me why my workplace is so mediocre, when all anyone cares about is face time at a desk (doesn't matter what you're doing at the desk, you just have to be present).
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    Ditto on the four day work week, and how about some compensation for the stay at home mums of the world. That too is work. Apparently in a recent study, they figure if mums were in the corporate world they would need to be paid $125,000/ year.
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