Your Workplace Is Just Pretending to Care — and You’re Part of the Problem, Too. Here’s Why.
Workers want more from their employers. But it’s also a two-way street.
(This column originally appeared in Entrepreneur)
If you ever want to watch a single minute of a television show that succinctly demonstrates the differences between today’s workplace and that of yesteryear, check out this clip from Mad Men. An employee at the advertising firm (Peggy Olson) wants recognition. Her boss (Don Draper) is baffled.
Don Draper: It’s your job. I give you money. You give me ideas. Peggy Olson: And you never say thank you. Don Draper: That’s what the money is for!
That was in the early 1960s. Today’s business owners can’t have this conversation. Why? The relationship between workers and their bosses today is much different than then. Today, we don’t just pay employees. We offer benefits ranging from healthcare and retirement to bereavement days off when a pet dies.
But even this is not enough. In 2024, today’s owner-manager can’t just pay an employee off with a good salary and innovative perks. It has to be something more. The employer has to really, really “mean” it. They have to show they really care. If they don’t, they’re guilty of a new workplace crime: “carewashing.”
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What is “carewashing”?
A recent column in the Harvard Business Review boiled it down to “using unsubstantiated claims of employee well-being as a marketing tool is a quick fix that will have profoundly negative long-term consequences.” The authors of this article provided examples such as when “leaders who pretend to care about employee well-being and safety brush off workplace harassment disclosures and trivialize the harm done.” In other words, you can’t just say it. You have to do it.
Is this a pervasive issue in today’s workplace? Maybe it is. A new Gallup survey on employee well-being indicates that the percentage of employees who strongly agree that their organization cares about their overall well-being has plunged from 49% in 2020 to 21% in 2024. Saying, “That’s what the money is for!” isn’t enough.
As an employer, should we care that our employees don’t think we care? Maybe not if we were Don Draper, and it was 1960. But we’re not. And it’s not. It’s 2024. How we act and what we say is not only important to our employees but also to our reputation, particularly in these times when our behavior is immediately documented, videoed and then shared online.
A CEO who says, “We’re safety-focused,” and then brushes off a safety warning. A manager who says, “My door is always open,” but it’s not. The vice president who announces to anyone within earshot that “flexibility and work-life balance is an important part of our culture” but regularly emails employees over the weekend demanding immediate responses. These are what we would call “carewashers.” They say they care — but they really don’t.
“Carewashing” isn’t the only type of “washing” that gets people into trouble. Organizations that say they’re looking out for the environment but don’t really do anything about the environment are accused of “greenwashing.” Do you say you support the LGBTQ+ community but avoid demonstrating that commitment? You’re “pinkwashing.” There’s brainwashing, whitewashing and even “sportswashing,” where a country invests in a major sporting event to cover up its human rights records.
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All of this “washing” adds up to the same thing: credibility. If, as a business owner, you say you’re going to do something, then you do it. If you say you’re a “safety-first company,” for example, you better believe you’re all over any safety issues your workers raise. Employees aren’t stupid. They can tell a “carewasher” from a mile away.
But let’s not put all of this on the shoulders of employers and business owners. Employees aren’t immune to this behavior and are also responsible for being credible. Those practicing “quiet quitting,” “coffee badging,” or “barely minimum Mondays” are, in effect, promising that they’ll do the work they were hired for but are instead not doing it. Which means they’re also “carewashing.” Of course, employees want their bosses to care about them. But, as bosses, we want our employees to care about their jobs, their products, and the company as a whole.
Are you a carewasher? Whether you own or work for a company, I certainly hope not. In 2024, just saying, “That’s what the money is for,” doesn’t cut it. The modern workforce wants owners who also care about them and show it. And owners want the same.
