Your Company Cares About You
Last year during the height of the pandemic one of Canada’s biggest companies began a new campaign focused on “personal resilience.” This was part of their ongoing efforts to put people first. As a Progressive Corporation Who Cares™, they really make the effort to better the lives of their employees.
This new campaign just so happened to coincide with untenable amounts of stress leave and short term disability claims that were hindering profits and costing far too much in unproductive workers.
While it contained no funding, additional time off, decreased workloads, adequate staffing, or flexible schedules, it did feature a video by the CEO as he explained that he enjoyed cycling on his time off because it helped him unwind and build his “personal resilience.” He got paid $9,000,000.00 last year. I imagine this grants him ample time to ride his bicycle through his exclusive neighbourhood in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets while working remotely and insisting that his staff, fully capable and equipped to work from home, go to the office on a daily basis and risk the repeated infections that regularly shut down entire locations. But they too should find time for themselves and put their mental and physical health first. On the weekend. The video showed other employees and how they recharge to be ready for the next work week. There was something inspirational about watching him stand next to a $4,000 bike in the lush greenery of his area then seeing the camera cut to an employee who enjoyed free dance classes offered by a charity over Zoom in her one bedroom apartment. That was her parallel, her way of unwinding (assuming she didn’t accidentally clothesline a loved one during Warrior Pose 2.)
The wording is peculiar, isn’t it? “Personal resilience.” It’s not “staying healthy” or “dealing with the pandemic and the importance of your wellbeing.” No, it’s about you toughening up to do what we need. Life was difficult before the virus of totally unknown origin swept the globe. Now it’s worse in a myriad of ways and you need to get those numbers up. We’re not changing our targets to accommodate the mental health crisis decimating our society. Our shareholders are expecting record profits yet again and there’s no way we can achieve that with you laying in bed nursing your little headache or whatever massively increased amounts of stress, anxiety, and depression do to people held hostage in isolation for months on end while their relatives die alone.
When navigating the convoluted nightmare of language that is Corporatespeak, it’s always helpful to remember that they can only mask what they’re really trying to say. They can’t outright hide it for fear of repercussions down the line. The official statements are done only out of necessity while simultaneously minimizing risk. Peeling back the layers requires patience and the understanding that these words were carefully selected and filtered and refiltered until they seemed just plausible enough and just mundane enough to pass by unquestioned. If asked about what they have done to help over 50,000 employees during these tough times, they can say that they have started a campaign. A campaign focused on mental or physical health can be criticized as pointless without concrete changes in the forms of funding or time off. But personal resilience doesn’t really mean anything specific. It’s purposely opaque, covers the company just enough if scrutinized, and subtly reinforces the message that you had better toughen up if you want to keep your job — all with the added benefit of not costing them a dime.
One of the greatest gifts that someone can give you is showing their hand. We’re buddy buddies, everything is cool and I’m concerned about you. I really care. But when all is said and done, here’s where we stand: with my foot on your neck.
