A Time For Passion

In the context of national events, now is not the time for stoicism, it’s a time for passion says Cat Wildman, Founder, Powered by Diversity.

Being able to be dispassionate and continue to ‘soldier on’ at work, despite what’s going on outside of it might feel like stoicism to many company leaders. But to your marginalised employees, it looks a lot more like privilege.

I have worked at, and run, different companies with very different cultures and tones of voice. I’m thinking of one in particular, whose official values were things like ‘fearlessness’ and ‘innovation’. Whilst those were written on the walls, their actual core value was stoicism.

Rational, reasonable, wise, dispassionate – “steady the ship”. This was the day-to-day reality at the company. This was what they actually lived and breathed.

Emotion and passion were very much frowned upon.

Say something

In a company where emotion and passion were very much frowned upon, when things happened outside; for example the #MeToo movement went global whilst I was there, it was not commented upon internally.

Belief in not jumping into things that they believed had nothing to do with them, coupled with a fear of getting it wrong and ‘causing more upset’ resulted in a refusal to comment and a complete refusal to engage.

But all the employees wanted was for them to say something…anything.

A lot of employees felt completely disillusioned by the way the company handled it. Actually what ended up happening was that little skirmishes would break out on internal messaging groups and forums, which ended up with HR on the back foot, running round putting out little fires. Ironically this approach caused the company a lot more work and aggravation.

A simple statement, as soon as the #MeToo movement started, such as “we stand firmly against sexism, sexual harassment and sex discrimination. If any employees require support during this time, here is what we have made available…” would have been perfect.

Leaving it at the company door

However that statement was never made. Their mindset was very much one of “we leave those things at the door when we come in”.

The yawning gap in understanding here is that a lot of companies still genuinely assume that this is possible.

It’s not possible to leave your sexuality, your skin colour, your religion, disability, neurodivergence, parental status, health or gender at the door.

The closer to the top of the privilege pyramid you are, the easier it is to forget about things like racist and xenophobic riots and Islamophobia and get on with your day. The more outside events impact you and your family and friends, the harder it is to forget about it between the hours of 9 and 5.

I’m not condemning a stoic company culture. Heck, in a perfect world, a ‘stoic’ company culture might appeal to many people – me included at times. You can’t be jumping up and getting passionate and emotional about every single thing all the time.

Balance, understanding, passion

I’m a passionate person by nature but having worked in a company where emotion and passion ruled the day, not only was it completely exhausting, it was almost impossible to get anything done.

What’s needed now is balance, understanding and yes, a bit of passion.

There is a need to get on with work, but, what employers need to understand is that if their employees are being expected to leave a key part of themselves at the door on the way in, they are not going to be able to give it their best effort.

Possibly more importantly, employees need to know their company has heart – and has their back.

Companies need to muster up the courage to make a stand against what’s happening.

Does your company think racism and xenophobia are wrong?

Does your company think Islamophobia is wrong?

Don’t assume your employees know that you think this.

Say it out loud.

If you say it often, say it again.

Say it internally and better still say it externally too.

If companies are worried about offending people internally with a statement like “we do not tolerate racism, xenophobia or Islamophobia in any form” and/ or “we stand with our Muslim employees and all of our employees who have migrated to the UK” then they need to sit down and think about what kind of people would be offended by a statement like that.

They might find that flushing them out of the woodwork might be a good idea all round.