Does love belong in the workplace?
What is love? It's the act of caring about others in your life and can and should extend to yourself (in fact that is the greatest love of all)! Love is love - an intention we have no matter who the receiver. What changes based on the relationship is the expression of that love. You can extend your loving intentions to your significant other, children, parents, friends, neighbours, work colleagues, teachers, etc. When you feel loving toward someone you want them to enjoy the happiness and joy to the extent that you feel it. You want them to feel well physically, mentally, and emotionally. You want them to love themselves the way that you do.
How can this be expressed for your work team? After all you only work together. When at I worked at Mantralogix our team members meant the world to me. We are connected to each other via our work mission (to look after our customers) which we could not do without first looking after each other. As an organization we found creative ways to express our love. We ran a Fitbit challenge and walked our way to a healthier life. We had heard that "sitting is the new smoking" - that sitting for long periods of time is harmful to your health. Since most of us do need to commit to long hours in front of our computers we decided to purchase a Fitbit for each of our interested team members had tons of fun competing against each for the highest number of steps. Of course, the prizes made it even more fun! But nothing was more exciting that the benefits to our health. Team members reported a different in their health, their joy and appreciation that they mattered to the organization. Along with being good for your heart walking is also considered to be one of the best exercises for brain health - and that's worth walking for.
When I made the very difficult decision to leave my career at Scotiabank I was working with a very special team of long tenured and deeply technical specialists. I had only worked with this team for a year. I shared my decision to leave and while disappointed the team was clearly respectful of my reasons for leaving. While our time together was short I can definitely share that it was full of love. We expressed love for each other's life stories and love for the care we brought to our roles every day. The team reduced me to tears the night of my "retirement" celebration. They had carefully listened over the year when I had shared the story of losing my brother and subsequently starting a scholarship in his honour at the University of Toronto. They decided to pool funds together from our offices across Canada and make a donation to the scholarship to reflect their love for me and for my desire to grow the scholarship. I can still vividly remember how they made me feel that night. Loved and in awe of their ability to love and show love. I can still feel all of that in my heart to this day. Believe it or not, the team I worked with at MNP ended up recognizing me in exactly the same way. Nothing could make me happier.
The culture at Mantralogix is absolutely the thing I am most proud of when I reflect on my time there. I realize that it was a culture of love. Team members were committed to "paying it forward" to new colleagues with the hopes that they would be equally supportive to the next new member that started. It was a “thing”! Other examples of how the team expressed love included volunteering together for a day at the Eden Community Food Bank, paying $1/ week to dress down on Fridays and donating $300 to Interval House, a shelter that helps women and children escape violence and rebuild their lives. Our male colleagues let their facial hair go wild to support Movember and raised $1000 for that great cause. There was bowling night, pub night, mini golf night - and most famously taking time to share some cake in celebration of every team members' birthday! While the world celebrates Valentine's Day on February 14th, the Mantralogix shared their hearts every day. Love is more than a word.