Bringing the light

I hear a good deal of pain and frustration from people these days about their workplaces. It seems most everyone is doing more than one job (and not getting compensated for the added work) as companies downsize but don't cut back on the work load. The workers who are left have to pick up the slack.

More and more employees simply have their heads down and just keep pushing through, attempting to "do it all," knowing if they complain, they will be told how lucky they are to have a job and that they need to just suck it up. And that's true. They are fortunate to have a job. But they don't feel so fortunate when they can't keep up with the work load and when the environment has grown so toxic and unfriendly. It reminds me of the cartoon I saw years ago where the boss was beating an employee. The caption read: "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

We can do better than this. I don't know what the answers are, but I do know we can do better. And I do know that this is not the type of motivation that causes people to do their creative and best work. I wonder whether we could actually begin a national conversation about this? I know, I know, there are so many things about which we need national conversations! But we do have to begin somewhere.

For now, perhaps we each simply need to do our part to add more light and love to the world since there seems to exist plenty of darkness and toxicity. Perhaps compassion for each other would be a good place to begin. What do you think?