The ‘Co’ in Workology Co has many meanings, but my favourite? Collaborative. It means my team and I will work with you to co-create a workplace culture where people feel valued, where they bring their best selves to their work. Ok, yes, there are certain caveats to this statement.
And yes, it does indeed seem that you can take the girl out of the law, but you can’t quite take the law out of the girl. I mean, caveats? I digress.
One thing I have learned since founding Workology Co, back in 2017, is that the scope of what we do is constantly evolving.
In the early founding days, especially when it truly was just me on my Pat Malone, the business was all about employee engagement.
Here I am in the very early days of launching Workology Co…a little intimidated, and a lot excited.
I even went off and paid the (somewhat exorbitant) fees to become a certified Gallup Employee Engagement Champion.
Notwithstanding the fact that my main clients in those early days tended to be the type that I jokingly referred to as being from the Dark Side.
The Dark Side being my nickname for work in the reactive side of ER/HR, dealing with times when the shiz hits the fan: like conducting investigations into inappropriate behaviour, or facilitating mediations between aggrieved colleagues.
Over the years since, and having spent ¾ of one year in that time being employed as a consultant for a different organisation, I came to realise that engagement was just one part of the bigger picture.
The bigger picture being the beast we call workplace culture.
During those years, I’ve gorged myself on a diet of all things culture, and can quite happily now say I am a workplace culture nerd. The kind who gets teary on date night when talking about examples of poor culture that I have seen in clients.
Sad but true.
Out and about and talking culture with The Husband…& yeah, I’m pretty pumped about it!
I have also refined and redrafted Workology Co’s purpose a couple of times along the way; and I’ve flipped between being all about helping to fix broken cultures, to only wanting to work with clients who are seeking to improve on an already good culture. Only to land somewhere around about in the middle.
Despite this year only being a few short months old (side note: is it just me, or does it still feel like it must be February to you as well?) I have already spent some time reflecting on a few Big Life Questions.
Like the day I spent with the awesome Brian Klindworth, at one of his Work with Meaning Experience workshops.
The day gifted me many things, in addition to possibly the best pizza I have ever tasted.
Brian actively encouraged reflection – and with reflection comes lightbulb moments
Including the realisation that my personal mission is:
To help the world of work be as good as it possibly can be, for as many people as possible.
In reality, this means that whenever I am approached by a potential Workology Co client to discuss a project, I will be running the project through the lens of my personal purpose, alongside Workology Co’s purpose.
For example, recently I was asked to interview a young woman in relation to claims of inappropriate behaviour towards her from a significantly older male in her firm.
Whilst investigations are no longer my preferred bag, when I put this issue through the lens of my purpose, I realised that I had to take on this project.
Because as I said to *Pam when I did meet with her: we have come such a long way from when I was her age, working in my first professional job (as a lawyer).
I commented that if you were to grab a group of 10 women my age, then I believe at least 9 of them , if not all 10, would put their hand up when asked the question: “Were you sexually harassed or discriminated against at any time in your career?”
I watched an interview last month with Kate Jenkins, our Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, who said almost the identical- and, as a woman of my vintage, also admitted that it had indeed happened to her (as a practising solicitor who specialised in anti-discrimination laws).
I was sexually harassed many times in the earlier stages of my career. Indeed it got to the point in my mid-40s when I remember realising “Oh wow, I must be getting old, because this is the first job I haven’t been sexually harassed in”.
For the majority of times, I was relatively ok about this. Not great – far from it – but it was OK in that I could generally brush off the experience and get on with my work.
There are a couple of exceptions to that.
One occurred when I was practising as a family lawyer, and had to appear in court against an older male solicitor who I much admired, and had a fairly good working relationship with.
I won against this solicitor in court that day; only to find myself later that same day having to rebuff his very obvious and very physical advances.
I felt humiliated – and intimidated. I couldn’t understand how this person who had treated me as his professional equal (or superior – I had beaten him after all), was now treating me like a piece of meat.
I find that after recounting this tale for this blog, I now can’t go on and share any of the other times I felt the sexual harassment went beyond “OK’.
Sadly, I have no doubt that you get the picture.
The point is: we have indeed come a long way when it comes to sexual harassment of young women in the workplace, but judging by the recent case I did investigate, and all too frequent stories in the media, we still have quite a long way to go.
Similarly, I have more than one tale I could share about having been personally bullied in the workplace. Yes, sometimes the bullying was by the same men who also sexually harassed me. Most times if I am being honest.
The point is, that I have personal and direct experience of workplaces that most definitely were not as good as [they] possibly can be for the people who work there.
Far from it in fact.
Which is why I am so passionate about this purpose.
Exhibit A of me being passionate about Workology Co – and my – purpose.
And which is why, when I am asked about projects that fall outside the scope of Workology Co’s general purpose; as long as the project will help at least one person’s workplace be better – then it’s a Yes from me.
Here at Workology Co, myself and the team are focused on fulfilling Workology Co’s purpose of journeying alongside our clients and Building exceptional culture so your Business excels.
When this purpose is viewed through my personal lens of helping ensure your workplace culture is ‘As good as it can be for as many people as possible’, then viola my friends.
We have before us a prime example of my values being aligned with that of the business I work in. Why is this important? Read our blog, ‘V is for Values’ here, part of our A -Z of Workplace Culture Series to learn more.
Alternatively, do you want to discover how we can help your business to build exceptional culture?
Reach out and let’s chat.