The Problem with ‘Carewashing’

According to a recent HBR article, Carewashing is “covering up, or putting a misleading spin on a failure to meet some commitment, stated claim, or standard.” It’s disingenuous and people see through it. It often includes behavior that is different from stated intent, for example, “we care for your well being, but have no flexibility if you need extra time off.” Etc.

The same HBR article refers to a 2024 Gallup survey indicating “the percentage of employees who strongly agree that their organization cares about their overall well-being has plunged from 49 percent in 2020, to 21 percent in 2024, while a previous survey found that improving well-being and culture rated much higher than increasing compensation among the things ‘quiet quitters’ would like to change about their work.”

So what might we do to minimize carewashing? The same article provides some useful recommendations. However, I want to suggest a somewhat different take.

I’ve become hardened to the belief that organizations and leaders are often NOT committed or capable of providing policy and practices that make a real difference regarding the personal care of workers. Each employee's circumstance is so unique in place/time/context, that it may not even be possible to develop ubiquitous care support arrangements. One size fits all doesn’t work.

So, why not help each employee to be more self-accountable for their personal well-being by giving them more control over choices? In other words, take the “control” and “permission” requirement out of the hands of the leader/organization, and let individuals formulate their itineraries based on balancing pre-agreed upon expectations and care based benefits they’re encouraged to expend.

Consider this scenario: You have an employee who has worked 12+ hour days for most of the year due to demanding, high priority software development projects. This employee wants to take her family to Europe, but only has two weeks remaining vacation. For her and her family’s well being, she would like to take a month off. At best, she’s stuck with trying to work remotely while her family navigates around her schedule, or she takes unpaid leave (after she was just expected to work all those crazy hours). Rather than her asking permission, what if the positive burden was on the employee to determine a fair/reasonable time away, and her manager's job was to champion her decision and needs? What if the employer made support services widely available, and the responsibility was on the individual to build a well being “care plan” of one. Frankly, this could amount to approximately 25 percent or more of total compensation, yet in a different configuration. One person’s use of a life coach might be another’s use of a nutritionist, and so on.

Our life/work circumstances change so rapidly, ubiquitous one size fits all policies begin well-intended, yet diminish to carewashing. (We have a yoga room, spiritual center, employee assistance, etc… So what? For who?).

Compassionate leadership and organizations provide a meaningful opportunity to encourage self-accountability in self care, and to say “yes” to individual support programs. The obvious back drop is that people DO have to provide value and results in the workplace. Still, we know that none of us can run in the high performance zone consistently and sustainably. And the idea that an organization can grind people out on the promise of stock options is so 1990’s. There are enough underwater, unrealized stock options to wall paper the Earth.

When leaders/organizations pronounce they have a caring culture, but are really meat grinders, they become the very worst carewashers. When an employee dies of a heart attack, or emotionally crashes due to burnout, care in these places devolves into “we CARE how fast you can be replaced.”

Find somewhere you have more control of making a contribution in a healthy way that integrates work/life. (The way you treat your self-care now will manifest in your later years. I know this through my own inability to adequately invest in self-care along the way.) Everyone wins in an environment of greater self-accountability (except the meat grinder, making you the sausage). Sausage usually gets fried.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

- Lorne

One Millennial View: I appreciate this discussion. Part of me is a tad wary of “carewashing complainers” too, because what exactly do we expect? Any attempt at a self-care offer from an organization is generous. While commonplace, it’s still an add on. Let me start with this question: Do you go to work because it’s somewhere that pays you for your skills/time, and that’s it? If so, is it possible that no self-care option will be sufficient, because the truth is you don’t really care to be there anyways?

Could you imagine someone saying, “I work at a pizza place. They offer me free pizza… But they’re carewashing, because I don’t even like pizza.” Yeah… Well… Seems to me, your best self-care option would be to not take a job where the organization’s passion is your aversion.

So, it takes some serious self-accountability. One size fits all will never be true, and when we give care, and are cared for, it doesn’t make sense for one size to fit all anyways.

P.S. I wrote about the “Chaos of Catchy Terminology” back in Sept. 2022, and carewashing is no different.

- Garrett

The Problem with ‘Carewashing’

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