It’s 2011, the year of Which Company Can Give Its Employees the Most Work/Life Benefits–and I’m happy to say my employer, Healthy Environments Leverage Productivity! Inc. (HELP!), a global work/life consulting firm based in Chicago, is a top contender for the title.
That’s especially good news for our 12,000 employees worldwide because for the past decade, I’m embarrassed to report, HELP!–despite being on the cutting edge of employee benefits and programs for clients–was out of the loop when it came to being an employee-friendly firm. The results were predictable: high turnover, low productivity and many employee complaints–especially from me.
To its credit, 10 years ago the company built an ultra-modern, on-site, quality child care center, staffed with caregivers who have doctorates in early childhood education and are paid annual salaries in the six figures. And HELP! can be brilliant when it wants to be: It not only has a 24-hour-lactation room on its premises, but also two wet nurses on duty.
But still my employers didn’t really get it when it came to all the other programs and services that employees need.
Though I know this is hard to believe, HELP! was that rare, almost obsolete, company that didn’t offer paid sabbaticals every two years and massages every day, didn’t take all its workers and their significant others on company-paid trips to exotic resorts and didn’t even have an entire floor of its building devoted to electronic games, exercise rooms and free, healthy meals. It does now, though.
But it wasn’t until earlier this year, when, in her second term, U.S. President Hillary Clinton–the first female president and the first chief executive to make work/life strategy a cabinet position–signed an executive order requiring businesses to give employees free concierge services, that we at HELP! joined the rest of the world’s workers: We now have our laundry and dry cleaning picked up and delivered, our cars repaired, free parking, public transportation subsidies, free tickets for movies and sporting events and company-paid hair styling.
What’s so wonderful about offering worker-friendly benefits beyond the stereotypical telecommuting, job sharing and flexible hours that everyone has today is that it’s a self-perpetuating process: Once you start, it’s hard to stop.
In the past year alone, HELP! has helped employees choose the right family pet and allows dogs and cats in the office all week long. My esteemed employer also insists everyone come in a little later and go home a little earlier so we can take care of personal and family responsibilities. No one works on Fridays, even from home.
And even I was surprised when the corporate head of work/life enrichment announced that on a worldwide basis, everyone, including not only much-indulged professionals but also every member of the support and production staff, will be given annual bonuses based on the number of parent-teacher conferences we attend. I waited a long time for that one!
Getting up this morning to go to work, I felt pride in the fact that HELP! is such a prize-winning employer. But actually, I’m not going into the office today at all. I rarely do. No one else does, either: Our managers have drilled into us that face time is an obsolete concept and no longer matters.
If I did go in for a few hours, however, the company limo, as usual, would drive me to the office and home because I don’t have a car. And I know I still could wear my comfy robe and bunny slippers.
Yet, despite my deeply-ingrained loyalty to HELP! and a full personal life, in all honesty I have to report my world does not feel in balance–despite the sincere efforts of management. Something very big is missing from my personal work and life equation. With such great support from the company, it’s a very puzzling feeling.
That’s why I’ve spent many hours trying to figure out why I feel so stressed out, nonproductive and exhausted all the time.
Finally, I realized that what’s missing in my work/life equation is … work.
HELP!
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Watch Carol Kleiman’s Career Coach segments Sunday and Tuesday on CLTV. Contact [email protected].
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