A recent NY Times article exposing the harsh work environment at Amazon ignited intense discussion about the “culture” of Amazon and its expectations of long work hours at the expense of work-life balance.
As I read it (and clearly, Amazon isn’t the only tech company taking advantage of its employees through long work hours), I thought—“Wow, how 0-5 on the Wholeness Continuum” (see below). Clearly this high tech company of the 21st century is still attached to the old, reactive, status quo world where the awareness of Wholeness is basically absent. The belief by CEO Jeff Bezos—and then supported by staff—that in order to be successful we must allow only the work piece of our life to thrive—even at the expense of our health, our relationships, family, and community reflects the rat-race of the 20th century being perpetuated in the 21st.
Dear Amazon—that is so yesterday. Could we introduce you to the 6-10 side of the Wholeness Continuum? This is where real success can be found on personal, family, community, and business levels. It starts with individuals who use wholeness as a framework for designing their lives. No longer will they give up their health, relationship/family, and community connections to concentrate their energy in only one area—work. They want to live and work using a proactive, conscious framework where work fits into their life, not their life fits into what’s leftover after work.
The much smarter move? Wholeness. When you have an employee base focused on wholeness, it enables the creation of a Triple Bottom-line business—people, planets and profit resulting in a better business and a better world. And that’s a truly successful company.
It’s not too late Amazon—you can transform from 0-5 to 6-10. Wholeness is the future.