Love in the Workplace — Oh My!
Let’s talk about love baby….I mean it is Valentine’s Day after all.
While it may be taboo to talk about love in the workplace, I have never shied away from using the ‘L’ word. If it’s wrong to love my life, I don’t want to be right.
Love: it’s more than a feeling, a hum, a fire, it can fade, it can be reignited, and in all its forms I welcome it.
I challenged my colleagues to share with me what they love about work. And maybe I’m being presumptuous that the team has anything nice to say or feels anything that resembles love for our place of work. Maybe they even dislike me for adding more work to their already busy lives. But they didn’t disappoint, and I don’t apologize for asking.
It’s actually an interesting question as we all define love differently and are weary not to overuse it into meaninglessness. Together we’ve collected some valid reasons why we feel the flutters of emotion in the workplace. But more importantly why we ought to feel gratitude and privilege for being in an environment where business and heart can coexist. It’s worth talking about.
Don’t get me wrong, with anything you love, there comes another (often lengthy) list of things you hate. By the same token, anything with lasting value doesn’t come without pain or hardship. Sometimes the people we love the most, we didn’t even like upon first impression. The most valuable people in our lives are often times the most honest with us — brutally so. Honesty can be isolating and not well received, but when you care about people and their careers, you may have to deliver constructive criticism or tough love.
For example, one thing I am often criticized for is how I should make more time to get lunch with my co-workers. It’s not easy to be called out for my actions, especially when I want the team to like me. But I know I am given a hard time because good things come out of taking time away from work. One can better clear their head, refuel, or engage in an unexpected conversation that could spark creativity or an opportunity for collaboration.
Love is being able to have difficult conversations; knowing that when we fail we will be there to build each other back up instead of tear each other down.
And while in an idealistic world we would all love our careers, I know that it can be a daily struggle to find our purpose, a reason to like what we do or who we work with. That’s why my biggest caution is to avoid apathy. Love or hate your job, feel something! An apathetic attitude kills motivation to improve and quite frankly makes you miserable to work with. Frozen has taught us that ‘conceal don’t feel’ doesn’t work, and we need to cultivate an open conversation celebrating honesty and transparency. It’s okay to take things personally, it just means we care. We can focus on how to control our emotions to direct us in conducting productive, meaningful conversations.
Ultimately, we need to know when to step away, when to go for a run, when to take a minute to meditate. I am not sorry that I love my job, that I fiercely care about the people I work with. That’s why I take the time for self love, so I can be a better version of myself in my career and personal life. The time we take to improve ourselves make us better colleagues, siblings, parents, citizens of the world.
We find ourselves in tenuous times, where the daily news makes us wonder where is the love? Especially now, I am even more motivated to be a person who will tap into my emotional resources to promote diversity and compassion. Because a policy of hate does not have to beget more hate. I encourage us all to remain adamant about having heart in the workplace equal to our smarts, determination, and drive. But don’t take my word for it:
“What I enjoy most is helping my fellow employee’s with problems and making their day that little bit easier.”
“I enjoy solving problems. Can really turn my mood when I am able to tear down an issue, and build a solution which is effective, and nicely designed. This is how I show my creativity, so it really makes me feel good!”
“My favorite thing when I come into work is working with my team. I think my team brings the best out of me and makes me want to work harder everyday.”
“Our team’s energy is infectious and commitment to success is beyond great. Each and every one of us have an inherent standard for excellence and push each other to never settle for mediocrity. We do not shy away from new challenges and challenge each other to learn and grow. We build on each other’s strengths and don’t dwell on our weaknesses. We are in IT together and operate as an incredible team — a family! We are genuine and real. We inspire confidence to take on greater risks and know that if we are not failing, not constantly learning and too comfortable — then we are probably not challenging ourselves enough. How else can we truly reach our full potential?”
“Yes, it is Disneyland in IT!”
“I enjoy working on such a breadth of topics get the opportunity to work with so many different people in the company.”
“It feels good to know I’m helping to improve our processes especially since they prove out that our own products actually benefit our complex B2B manner doing business.”
“‘Transformers, robots in disguise’ is how I would describe our team. Individually as smart and cute as bumblebee and together as invincible as Optimus Prime.”
“Dare to be great! As always, everyday I push myself to be great! And the only way to be great is to surround myself with great talented people. Working with an amazing team helps drive me to get better for the team. We have such a great team and I am blessed to be part of IT.”
Love out loud everybody!
