Your Welfare at Work Matters

Many of us have been conditioned to compartmentalise our needs in the workplace. We are told that it is 'professional' to seperate our personal lives from work. Yet, our wellbeing, our daily emotions, are tied to our performance.

This compartmentalisation is ultimately outdated. The industrial revolution marked many standardised attitudes we have today towards work. Namely, the absense of pastoral care. Still, the workplace is often highly charged with emotions, filled with internal conflict, misunderstandings, personality clashes and the presence of our personal lives rising to the surface.

When welfare is central to an organisation, there is a greater sense of teamwork, collaboration, a culture of sharing ideas, rather than hoarding innovations - there is collective problem solving, as well as a desire to be personal and to show compassion.

A farmshop near me, originally grown from very basic seeds, can now employ a good number of growers, marketeers, delivery drivers, producers and sales personnel. Some even have residential positions and there are often monthly events - a collaboration of artisans, regional and local produce.

I don't doubt there maybe internal problems and conflicts from time to time. That is essentially human - but the enterprise is run on collective welfare, collective compassion and united by mutual values for organic produce, kindness and collective care for the earth and for one another. Sharing, forms part of the language of work there - be it knowledge, skills or local production forecasts.

When a workplace includes your welfare - your peace is somewhat protected. Trust forms part of the space you operate in and the separation between you and work becomes thinner and thinner. The lines between what is private and personal become blurred - as you learn to trust and respect that you belong to the architecture as a whole.

For some, the workplace still demands strong emotional boundaries in order to survive and to protect thier health and perfomance levels. The competition is often so high that some feel unable to reach for support and sharing is actively discouraged because it's every man or woman for themselves.

It is implicit that we transform these work cultures to include collective welfare. The repercussions of running organisations like eco-systems or forests, could positively transform our culture of competition on a greater scale. Rather than seeing everyone as competition, we might see them as team-mates, collectively enriching and supporting one another.

The cruelty and avariciousness of most work places means we are used to protecting our hearts, masking our feelings, leading with our achievements and hiding our struggles. If organisations encouraged an attitude of collective welfare over individual competition, we might protect, bolster and cultivate a more balanced work culture - where compartmentalisation, hiding and hoarding might ultimately no longer be necessary.