CEO Shares The 5 Things He Is Sick Of Hearing Employees Say
He's tired of people advocating for work-life balance — but not for the reasons you'd assume.
Ground Picture | Shutterstock The more time goes by, the more out of touch all too many CEOs seem to become. The notion that workers are human beings who need a bit of work-life balance seems to be becoming increasingly foreign to the people at the top.
At first blush, tech CEO Rob Dance seems to be one of these executives, but he might just be the exception.
He recently shared a post on social media detailing the five things he's most sick of hearing his employees say — all of which have to do with workers prioritizing their actual lives over their jobs.
Rob Dance is sick of employees asking for work-life balance — but not for the reasons you'd expect.
It's not just that CEOs are out of touch; we seem to be in a bit of a golden age of Marie Antoinette-like CEOs. What are all these "return to office mandates" we keep hearing about if not bosses completely tuning out their employees' needs and wants?
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And that's before we even get to the CEO who told her staff concerned about their pay to "leave pity city," or the CEO who said we need higher unemployment to pull workers in line. Yikes.
In this context, Dance, a U.K. tech entrepreneur who creates content about management and workplace mindset, seemed one and the same with these heartless leaders when he posted his list of bugaboos on Instagram.
Dance said he's tired of employees asking to leave early for personal things or staying home to take care of sick kids.
"Things I’m sick of hearing from my employees," Dance wrote in his post, and then listed the top five things that drive him crazy:
- "Can I leave early today?"
- "I’ll be late in the morning."
- "My child is sick; can I rush off?"
- "I’ve got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Is that OK?"
- "I’m going to be late back from lunch; I’ve got some things to sort."
"I don’t care," Dance abruptly added after his list, doing his best impression of the kind of boss we've all likely had far too many of. Especially here in the States, our work culture is such that we are expected to prioritize our jobs no matter what.
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The internet is full of stories about people who've lost their jobs because they didn't come to work during an emergency or because they needed too much time off to care for a sick relative — truly demoralizing situations that ignore the basic realities of being a human being.
And it turns out that Dance is just as tired of that frankly barbaric work culture as the rest of us, and it's the whole reason he's done listening to his employees ask him for more leeway.
Dance is irritated by his employees' requests for work-life balance because he doesn't think they should have to ask for it in the first place.
"I hired you for a job and I fully TRUST you to get it done," Dance went on to say in his post.
His point is that a culture where employees have to notify their boss that they will be a bit late from lunch or leave early if their work is done is a culture that shouldn't exist in the first place.
"I don’t need you to account for every single hour," he added. "Times have changed, and the workplace is different these days. People are sick of being treated like children."
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He went on to say that as long as everyone's work gets done, the whys and wherefores should be immaterial, and business leaders need to lay off the constant monitoring of time and schedules.
"My advice to companies: Treat your staff like adults," he wrote. "That’s it, that’s the big secret." He added that "autonomy" and "respect" for the fact that they "have lives outside of work" are key to being an effective business leader.
"Don’t gaslight them into being grateful for not being fired every day," he concluded. "Output should always trump hours." To say that his perspective garnered heaps of praise from workers and business leaders alike would be an understatement.
People praised his "emotionally intelligent" approach to business, and that he was modeling how to "build a place people don’t dread [coming] back to on a Sunday evening."
The truth is that it's incredibly easy to create this kind of workplace — it really does come down to just treating workers like people, as Dance said. Here's hoping more leaders start following his example.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.