I work for a company who sends almost daily emails about the 'resources' available to us and how 'we're all in this together' and videos from upper management that's being taken outdoors from their vacation home on Lake Tahoe or their 6 bedroom flat near DC. People who want to tell us how 'proud' they are of us for all of our work and how they 'understand' how difficult this is for us. And then they go on to congratulate other upper management for their efforts and innovations without ever acknowledging, let alone addressing, the people on the phones. We had a meeting with two of our upper management about two months ago. They both claimed that we could 'email them anytime' and talked up how they'd been responding to people. I have yet to receive a response to my email. Not even an acknowledgement of having received it and reviewing it for follow-up at a later date.
If I call out more than two days in a row, I'm supposed to contact HR to look into starting an STD or FMLA claim. Only there's no general email or phone number for our HR department, and the person that handled my last claim has since left the company. I was never informed who, if anyone, took her place. I just received an 'inconclusive' result from my rapid response COVID test this morning, and have been informed by my doctor to treat it as a 'positive' result until the sendoff results come back. I've gotten no direction or assistance from HR or management on how they want me to proceed.
Oh, and this past year, I was expected to use my own personal time, off the clock, to finish my PMP (the self-assessment metric by which my yearly raise/bonus is determined). They insisted we finish them over the holiday week, that we were working full schedules, and we were schedule 30 minutes to complete an assessment of a year's worth of metric scores and our belief on why we should get scored a certain number, and why we deserve that number. This was on a completely new system that they gave us an additional 30 minutes off the phones to learn.
The resources available to us are only to be accessed 'on our time'. Meaning we have to SCHEDULE time off, using our precious PTO to actually access the resources they are trying to pat themselves on the back for providing. My 'office' has been my bedroom, home office, and workplace since March of last year. I have no additional space to put either computer anywhere else. I have lived in a 13x13 room for nearly a year. But yes, 'we're all in this together'. Sure. I make a fraction of what they do, my tax return this year will be pitiful because I got two stimulus checks. But 'we're all in this together'. My job is in danger if I can't get my doctor to send in notice that I'm to stay at home, resting, for the next week. But hey, 'we're all in this together'!
Don't do this. Any of it. Communicate, clearly, even if its not what people want to hear. Be honest, even if what you have to tell them isn't good news. Provide your people with leeway in a difficult situation. Have their backs. And for the love of God, please don't push the party line. Don't tell your people 'we're all in this together'. Because that implies a level of equality that simply doesn't exist between different levels of employees. And we know it.
Be up front. Be honest. Don't let your people 'slip through the cracks'. Make sure they are getting heard, and make sure they get the follow-up they deserve.
