work life versus whole life

By L. J. Brown, February 2023

Managers can show up to do their work each and every day with the intention of leading employees on to bright futures, but this rarely happens without a bit of forethought. In my experience, there are lots of managers and heads of organizations who are not very good about asking their employees about the plans they have for their work or the life they have in general. At most, an employee may be asked where they might see themselves in a few years, and this question is usually not asked more than once or twice throughout the time they work at an organization.  

One great strategy that managers I admire use is asking questions of new employees soon after onboarding and initial training takes place. More organizations should encourage managers to do what I’ve come to call personal personnel scans. When a new employee begins work it is the optimal time to learn things about the new team member that could not be discovered prior to hiring them or that the then “candidate” was too uneasy about revealing because they were auditioning to be selected for a position.  

Taking the opportunity to show genuine interest in a new employee’s understanding of their work, how they plan to go about completing and/or managing their work, and how their work assignments relate to what they hope to accomplish while working with an organization is invaluable information that managers should attempt to mine within the first two months of a new hire’s onboarding. The soft focus that everything is viewed for the first time quickly dissipates while more familiar patterns and the application of a person’s prior experience could provide an unappealing frame of reference. Since plenty of people use patterns to make sense of unknown, unfamiliar environments, this kind of shorthand allows individuals to believe they truly see the inner workings of an organization when they discover familiar patterns over time. After four to eight weeks, speculation and assumption can take over or outside influencers that may be a little more jaded about their outlook at work can give new employees a not so good impression of things about the organization which is usually not at all helpful.

Using the first eight or so weeks after an employee joins an organization to get a sense of how they process new information and use prior experience to order their world can provide a more honest assessment of potential ability or ambition than any manager should expect an employee to give. When an employer asks a new employee questions about how they want to carryout their work and what they ultimately want to accomplish with the work they do for the organization, it has the potential to demonstrate what the core values of the organization actually are more authentically than any mission statement posted on a website ever could.  

Opening conversations like this build the foundation for more substantive exchanges as the employee and organization evolve. Organizations should move toward having regular exchanges like this with all employees. Whether future exchanges center on employees pursuing scholarly or professional developments like acquiring education and/or training, program creation or completion, information discovery and dissemination, most new employees will be more committed to their work if they are given a sense that their employer is invested in the people doing the work.  

It stands to serve the entire organization if things other than weddings and funerals can be planned for and discussed openly. Companies pretending to offer unlimited vacation time does not eliminate the need for employers to make it easier for employees to have more upfront discussions about flexible work arrangements that realistically support their whole life. Employees should have the freedom and ease of planning periods of leave with the understanding that they have the full support of their employer (full support meaning the employer will not suspend promotion or prevent the pursuit of other potential opportunities). If an organization is thoughtful and strategic and attempts to know what their employees hope to accomplish, the organization can better serve all of its members as well as stakeholders.

Managers may believe that their role and purpose has little to do with the things people hope to be involved with once they leave their current position or organization, even if taking time to learn more about the people they lead can be one of the best approaches a manager can take to motivate their team. Giving employees a sense that the organization they work with is willing to invest in it’s employees has the potential to give a greater return on the time invested to train people. It is a far better approach than perpetuating the idea that all working people should “be grateful to have a job”. I have actually had the head of an organization I worked with tell me that when I inquired about a merit increase (or raise in pay) after I received an evaluation that stated my performance exceeded expectations in each of the criteria the organization used to assess managers. There may be some individuals that very well should “be grateful to have a job”, while others know the options they have.

Even if the notion of taking an interest in all of the people that make up an organization seems too Elysian to be possible, especially in modern American society, it still would be a great idea to talk to the employees that make the organization run from day-to-day to determine what people need to accomplish the goals of the organization. Whether staff are interested in taking leave to complete a training program, attend a conference, complete a degree, care for aging parent(s) or become parents, or do any number of other things that their work or life may require, it seems more practical than the current model of not talking about what people need to live—eat, work (so they can eat) and care for their family. 

No employee, new or existing, veteran or top performer, will speak to their manager about how their plan for their life (their whole life, work + personal) impacts the work they are assigned if they feel as if they work for an organization that only cares about work output. Work environments like this make it very difficult for people to exist—let alone thrive. If employees felt that their employers understood the nature of having a life in addition to their work lives these conversations would already be taking place on a regular basis.