What Happened To The “Whistle While You Work” Mentality Inside Of Our Organizations? Is Working Hard Dead?
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What does it mean to work hard?
It can be a subjective criteria but I think there are a 5 common themes we can identify:
- Consistently doing more than what is expected of you (Marc Randolph, the first CEO of Netflix told me that one of his rules is to do 10% more than what is asked).
- Having a positive attitude about the work you do.
- Showing dedication and persistence to achieving a goal.
- Doing the work in an ethical and honest way.
- Demonstrating a growth mindset where you learn new things and apply what you learn.
What does this have to do with Snow White?
Snow White is in the news quite a lot lately and while I don’t want to focus on the remake I do want to focus on one of the songs from the original film. “Whistle While You Work” is an iconic song from the original 1937 film which was composed by Frank Churchill, with lyrics by Larry Morey.
In the original film Snow White sings the song while she is doing household chores, specifically cleaning up the house of the Seven Dwarves. For context, the movie was released as the United States was recovering from the Great Depression.
The song represents having a positive attitude towards work (even if it’s something you don’t want to do), teamwork, overcoming challenges and adversity, and working hard.
What happened to this inside of our organizations today, specifically in white collar work? It feels like it’s missing and dare I say, that people don’t want to work anymore let alone work hard.
Over the past few years I’ve heard countless stories from various leaders who told me that the candidates they interviewed wanted to make more money than their bosses boss, they wanted bonuses, equity, perks, benefits, and then on top of everything, they also didn’t want to show up to the office?
How does that make any sense?
We are also seeing disturbing trends on social media like bare minimum Monday’s, lazy girl jobs, Sunday scaries, loud quitting, and a host of other such nonsense which in many cases highlights the either blatant disrespect that an employee has for their employer or at the very best, a lack of drive, motivation, and initiative to do the job they were hired to do.
I certainly don’t want people like this as a part of my team, do you?
When my parents came to America in the late 1970’s they had no money, no possessions, and didn’t speak English. They left the former U.S.S.R where they didn’t have the freedom and to say and do what they wanted and where they were persecuted for being Jews to build a better life for themselves from scratch (which they did).
My dad spent 8 hours a day watching the Merv Griffin and Jonny Carson shows with an English to Russian translation dictionary so that he could understand the words. He would spend hours in front a mirror mouthing the words and practicing how to speak English. He worked hard his entire life and never complained. That to me is a modern day hero and I wish we had more stories like that today.
I was raised with the same mentality of working hard, building, leading, and doing whatever was needed to succeed and thrive. A recent WSJ highlighted this struggle in an article titled, Bosses Want Hard Workers — So They’re Hiring Older People.
Where are the trends of people showing that they did more than what they were asked to do, where they tried something new at work, where they overcame a difficult challenge, where they got their first promotion, where they are excited to show up to work, where through ambition and motivation they were able to achieve or build something, and the like?
In the rest of this article I want to unpack what some of the causes of this are and how we can get back working hard which is so needed today.
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How do we bring back working hard to our organizations?
First, I’m not advocating for leaders being able to treat their employees poorly or working them to the bone, keep in mind that I spent many years writing and talking about the importance of employee experience which is all about putting people first, but at the same time there is nothing wrong working hard. That’s the relationship.
Employees agree to work hard to achieve the goals of the business and the employer agrees to do their best to provide an environment where employees have the tools, resources, spaces, and the culture required to get that job done while putting people first.
I’m a believer, advocate, and practitioner of working hard as is everyone on my team. It’s ok to talk about working hard, to ask for people to work hard, and to reward working hard. When did this become a bad phrase?
Whether you look at the destruction of life-time employment, the rise of technology, generational differences, a desire for more purpose and meaning, the rise of employee experience, changes in leadership styles, or a host of other potential trends, it’s clear that we need to bring back working hard to our organizations. How?
Define what working hard means
I provided 5 bullets above which I think are a great starting point. But if you want employees to work hard then explain what that means and what it actually looks like in the context of your organization. The definition you create should be focused on behaviors and attitudes as opposed to things like “working 80 hours a week instead of 40.” The outputs matter far more than the inputs.
Prioritize employee experience
For many years, I have defined employee experience as “changing the core workplace practices of your organization to put people first while focusing on three environments which are culture (how employees feel working for you), technology (the tools and resources that employees have access to in order to get their jobs done, and space (and physical space in which employees work). If you want your employees to work hard then you also need to work hard to take care of your employees and treat them well. At the heart of every organization are its people. This mentality is not just about the joy in work but also taking a holistic approach to work where we view employees as human beings and not just workers.
Recognize and reward working hard
There are always going to be some people who hit the ground running. These are the people who like challenges and working hard. Reward them, highlight them, and talk about what they did that demonstrates working hard. This could be anything from putting in a few extra hours to finishing a client deliverable to stepping in to run a client project when someone else couldn’t to do extra research that led to a more informed decision to having a positive outlook during a tough time, and anything in between. Whatever working hard looks like in your company, reward it, highlight it, and be proud of it.
Lead by example
If you want those around you to work hard, then guess what, it starts with you, the leader. On my team of 10 people for example I always try to emulate working hard by sharing examples of what other speakers and authors are doing, being available when people on my team need me, offering to assist others when I can, providing feedback (good and bad) on projects, trying to motivate the team during our weekly team calls, taking care of my deliverables before they are due, and a host of other things. In turn I can clearly see that members of my team work hard as well. Leading With Vulnerability is a critical element of this.
Use stories to create meaning
Being able to demonstrate the value of working hard can go a long way. For example in my case there have been many instances when my team had to work hard to create a piece of content to use on social media. It would require edits, revisions, review, and sometimes complete recreation to get to something that was great wether it be an infographic, a video, or an image. Whenever content performs well I share it with my team so that they can see how their working hard paid off. I send them the emails, the comments, and messages I get from either clients or people in my network who see the content we create and that impacts them in a positive way.
Working hard is what allows us to solve complex problems, to identify new opportunities, and to change the world. We should all be proud to work hard and we should all want the people who work with and for us to work hard as well. The company you work at was built by people who worked hard.
The “whistle while you work” mentality inside of our organizations is crucial but it’s fading to the point where not only do we not hear the whistling but we forgot the tune altogether.
Snow White came out almost 90 years ago, what we need today isn’t just nostalgia for the past but a rejuvenation of the spirit and pride of working hard. There is a huge opportunity for organizations around the world to make working hard a rallying cry for their people.
The question is, how many organizations are going to beat that drum, and how many employees are going to answer the call?
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