The underlying premise of what many say here at LinkedIn – especially those employed in the corporate wellness sector, either embedded in organisations or as external consultants – is that addressing wellness is good for the bottom line.
While I recognise the accuracy of this statement, I find it confronting.
Since work culture is a result of the behaviours of groups of human beings, what is really being said is that human beings should care about human beings because it is good for company profits.
While this argument might act as justification for a salary or a consultancy, from a societal perspective there is something fundamentally very wrong with that statement.
Moreover, while these measures may lead to improvements, I really do wonder at how enduring change will be when it is so correlated to monetary and market-based rewards. We all know that organisation/managerial fads are commonplace in contemporary workplaces.
I can say this because I am not driven by a profit imperative or self-interest. I simply want to play a role in helping society towards a better future by engaging and sharing my views.
That we have devolved to a society where it makes most sense for human beings to be good to each other, and within our broader interactions in the world (i.e. our impacts on the environment), if the market rewards it monetarily or in some other manner (typically related to societal status) is a consequence of the form of extreme capitalism that we have swung towards over the last half century.
This is at the heart of emotion and logic behind major changes, such as #thegreatresignation , we are seeing in this new era we have entered which I refer to as #thegreatreset .
People are tired of this world of transactional relationships as they crave authentic and deeper connection.
In the Great Reset era work-centric rhetoric and responses are seen as lacking and impotent.
Compassion is the only sustainable answer, and that is true in all settings
The irony is that those who understand and enact that in the way they live will reap the full rewards from engaging in society, including from capitalist markets as the underlying premise of the statement is correct, though they probably will not notice it since it is no longer their main goal.
For example, over many years I have closely observed one of the greatest capitalists ever in Warren Buffett and it is very clear to me that he was never driven to be powerful. Instead he was driven to excel at whatever he did, no doubt partly to provide security for he and his family, but also as a contribution to his society, and since he was especially good at capital allocation in a capitalist system he became wealthy almost as a byproduct of his passion and skill.
The short answer: if your motives are true, your actions will also be, and everything else will fall into the place it should be…
Published on 2 August 2022 on LinkedIn
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© Copyright Brett Edgerton 2022
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