We rarely acknowledge the mental effort of interpreting contradictory workplaces, but it still consumes significant energy - and is a likely contributor to burnout and employee disengagement.
This hit for me today. Because I think the narrative we sometimes fall prep to, is thinking we're alone, but maybe we're going crazy. I think yes there are some things we can do at an individual level, but I agree with you in that I think at the heart of the problem is that it is systemic.
I feel like the dissonance is turned up to 110% at the moment. We’re trying to reconcile “we care about our people” with the background rumblings of “AI is here to eat jobs”. It’s like constant whiplash.
Yes! There are a ton of conflicting messages happening right now for sure. Honestly as a new-ish people manager I can see how people can easily shift from have a humancentric approach to things and a "we're doing this for the company". I can already see it in myself in subtle ways and so I make a clear effort to try to still infuse a human and kinder approach to this role and my role in general. It doesn't come easy because it's in conflict with many people in leadership who are not like that, but ultimately I aim to try to strike a balance.
I found myself falling into it as a people manager too. There were decisions I couldn’t explain to my team beyond saying “it’s just the way it is”. I’m not cut out for people management, in the slightest.
I only really put this all together recently, and I’ve been out of corporate five years. I was spending so much mental energy trying to work out what the hell was going on around me.
Yeah I live in this irreconcilable space most days. Our top leaders love to speak of innovation and evolution but rarely consider new ideas let alone enact any. Good call on how that can wear on you though. I don’t think I had given that enough consideration in the mental load calculation.
This hit for me today. Because I think the narrative we sometimes fall prep to, is thinking we're alone, but maybe we're going crazy. I think yes there are some things we can do at an individual level, but I agree with you in that I think at the heart of the problem is that it is systemic.
I feel like the dissonance is turned up to 110% at the moment. We’re trying to reconcile “we care about our people” with the background rumblings of “AI is here to eat jobs”. It’s like constant whiplash.
Yes! There are a ton of conflicting messages happening right now for sure. Honestly as a new-ish people manager I can see how people can easily shift from have a humancentric approach to things and a "we're doing this for the company". I can already see it in myself in subtle ways and so I make a clear effort to try to still infuse a human and kinder approach to this role and my role in general. It doesn't come easy because it's in conflict with many people in leadership who are not like that, but ultimately I aim to try to strike a balance.
I found myself falling into it as a people manager too. There were decisions I couldn’t explain to my team beyond saying “it’s just the way it is”. I’m not cut out for people management, in the slightest.
Spot on, love it. Particularly the burnout connection, the psychological tax of the contradictions is not talked enough.
I only really put this all together recently, and I’ve been out of corporate five years. I was spending so much mental energy trying to work out what the hell was going on around me.
Yeah I live in this irreconcilable space most days. Our top leaders love to speak of innovation and evolution but rarely consider new ideas let alone enact any. Good call on how that can wear on you though. I don’t think I had given that enough consideration in the mental load calculation.
It took some time, space and distance to see it. It’s very hard to recognise what’s going on deep in your brain when you’re just trying to survive.
Hopefully once you know, it takes away some of the confusion.