Column | Why companies need to walk the talk on employees bringing their 'whole self' to work

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WANTED ONLINE | Column: The back-to-work call isn’t “adding joy”. Absence, in this case, did not make hearts grow fonder

The pressure on workers to pretzel themselves into being “culture fit” remains. Whose culture? What is a fit? If we are as colourful as the rainbow, then work culture cannot be a one-size-fits-all. For all the ways in which “work” advances in perceptually democratic ways, the lived reality differs — especially for those who are in marginalised communities...Herein I insert a motivation for my tribe: “the childfree female professional” . Childfreeness among women has garnered attention globally.

At worst, she’s the pitiful one for whom options, which were once plump grapes, have now shrunk like raisins in the sun. I can see the head of People/HR rushing to review policies to find that one line that mentions the childfree as a special-interest group... Mmhhh, it’s not there. Therefore, please lower the volume on the “you can bring your whole self to work” vibes and fix this omission.

The skills, intellect, and experiences that exit the organisation when the childfree feel unseen and/or are repro-shamed* are crucial to the efforts of any commercial enterprise to prosper. It also flies against the efforts of BBBEE . Now, more than ever, our country needs all shoulders to the wheel to kick our economy back to life. Maybe not full throttle yet, but at least the heartbeat can register on an ECG machine. A luta continua...

*A term I’ve coined: the childfree are repro-shamed based on their reproductive choices and negatively stereotyped as defective, selfish, shallow, and unfulfilled.

 

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