Toward a More Humane Workplace

The push for profitability, accountability, and flexibility has led to a workforce that is hardly recognizable from just 20 years ago.

The Internet boom years saw a great push toward “engagement” – or connecting the employee to the company. Catered lunches, casual dress, and even cotton candy machines in the break rooms put an end to the stuffy workplace and were supposed to usher in a new age.

Now we are known best by our employee number and we cling to our name badges in a mortal attempt at holding on to our last bit of dignity. Meanwhile, we scan, log, and document every motion in the name of efficiency.

Bethany Jenkins at the Gospel Coalition believes we are dehumanizing the workplace. And there's a price to pay.

“When brokenness exists at all three levels in the workplace—the industry, the community, and the individual—where can we find hope?” she asks.

It’s a good question. Many of us work so that we can connect with others and make long-term bonds with our coworkers. But those bonds are broken by free-wheeling employees who move from assignment to assignment and employers that are willing to lay off hundreds of workers just to pad the current quarter’s bottom lines.

The article discusses ways to humanize the workplace again in four different areas: fairness, equity, opportunity, and creativity/innovation.

What happens when the workplace at all these levels is more humanized?

According to Jenkins, the benefits are “productivity and efficiency increases as well as the ability to live out our callings as image-bearers of God.”

She emplores all of us re-humanize our workplaces. Read the full article at The Gospel Coaltion.

Post by Newsletter Editor David Rupert.