Want to know what i view as the real culprit? Corporations. Companies that are beholden to shareholders will never be positive influences in American society or the workforce. Businesses for the most part need to be small enough and closely held enough that the "boss" knows nearly everyone in the company. The further we gwt away from that, the more we will see overall levels of dissatisfaction with work and life in general.
Obviously such a thing is impossible to unwind and impractical in some industries, but overall the corporate structure has decimated American worklife.
I agree with this in many ways. Though I have read that some corporations are very aware and active in ensuring work life balance.
I've seen this in my company. I do greatly appreciate my direct team and how family oriented they are. But, since we spun off and are a stand alone publicly traded company, it has changed a lot.
Some co-workers and I were discussing how our company used to have very nice elaborate Christmas parties, but we no longer have those. Each year, we see less and less of that type of thing. Years ago we would have two major activities a year. One for family, one for couples. They were really nice events.
We haven't had one of those since 2020.
This year our sad little "Holiday Meal" was more of a reminder of how these things are no longer important than it was an event. We didn't even have enough seating, half the people got their meals and went back to their offices to eat alone.
I'm sure if this were taken to sight leadership their response would boil down to: "You get a nice bonus when the company does better".
Which is true, but if they cut the bonus by $200-400 a person to cover a Christmas party, I believe they would get better overall response.
I do understand that there are a lot of variables that leadership has to consider. And the company does still put effort into other areas. So, I don't want to sound like it's a net negative, it isn't. But everyone I speak with misses those Christmas parties.
