In a new Nairobi startup's expansive, open-plan office, with keystrokes and intermittent phone rings interrupting the silence, Omuga and Ndung’u face vastly disparate realities in the workplace.
Omuga, a project manager, is regularly infuriated by a manager's constant imposition in a 'work hard, play hard' office. On the other side of the room, Ndung’u, a software developer, grapples with a peer's undermining comments that chip at his confidence daily.
Both examples illustrate a contrast between a workplace environment that, at first glance, professes concern for workers' welfare but fails in reality to effectively address the root sources of tension.
A new study by Maren Gube, Cynthia Mathieu, and Debra Hennelly identifies a prevalent issue in today's workplace interestingly called carewashing.
Much like its counterpart, the more prevalent greenwashing of fake environmental initiatives, carewashing entails companies creating an aura of concern for workers' welfare but not actually taking substantive actions to make such a claim a reality. Such as team building with no follow-up, staff satisfaction or engagement surveys with no subsequent change, etc.
Further, in a mental wellness and productivity-conscious world, companies go through motions of wellness programmes such as mindfulness sessions and flexible work options but in many instances use them as cosmetic bandages for deeper, systemic overwork and tension-related ills.
The divide between a polished exterior of company policies and a rough reality of work life has deep consequences. Workers, such as Omuga and Ndung’u, navigate a work environment in which tension over unachievable targets and interpersonal tension is masked with shallow wellness rhetoric.
What transpires is not a loss in individual welfare but a larger failure in an organisation that extends to productivity and workforce retention.
The research identifies carewashing as a threat in eroding trust in the workplace. As workers see a gap between rhetoric and reality, cynicism takes over and becomes very hard to break.
Cynicism can make high performers become early departures from the firm, and for those who do not depart, a lack of actual care can make them disengaged, manifesting in absenteeism or lack of motivation which exist as a far cry from a leaders' dream of a high-performance workplace.
To counter carewashing, a number of actionable strategies have been proposed in the research. Leaders must bridge rhetoric and reality through actual investment in robust care structures that go beyond rhetoric.
That involves not simply putting programmes in place but checking in with workers regularly to gauge whether wellness programmes deliver real value to workers' lives and function effectively in practice, not theory alone.
In companies committed to transformation, that could mean reframing performance metrics to include well-being metrics and training leaders to effectively detect and mitigate sources of staff strain.
In addition, creating a workplace in which feedback is not simply invited but heard can bridge gaps between workers' and companies' practice and expectations.
In another research by Jo Litter, the study strips away the layers of carewashing in modern universities, and one sees tension between public professions of caring environments and actual academic pressures eroding such claims.
Universities are supposed to be public benefit organisations, but observations in the sector yield a critical analysis of the nuance of how universities, and particularly universities with a market orientation, enact shallow forms of care.
Systemic failures manifest in the form of care such as well-being seminars and mindfulness sessions that, in many instances, stand in direct contradiction to high-pressure and inflexible academic and administration structures that burn out and stress students and faculty alike. How would your own workplace or industry fare? Real employee concern and wellbeing or carewashing?
The journey to a genuinely caring corporation is long and involves a sea change in thinking about well-being and its integration into corporation values.
Omuga, Ndung’u, and many, many other employees throughout Kenya would feel that such transformation cannot arrive soon enough.
As our East African companies head into the future, moving past carewashing and actually caring about workers will be critical to creating work environments in which everyone can thrive.
The combatting carewashing approach will not only make workplace wellness programs real but will also make for a more productive and engaged workforce.
By being transparent and genuinely caring, companies can build a strong, resilient workplace culture that encourages and enables all workers.
Have a management or leadership issue, question, or challenge? Reach out to Dr. Scott through @ScottProfessor on X or on email [email protected]
