It is Monday morning and Tom & Lucy are getting their daughter ready for school. They are fantastic parents that make a concerted effort to teach their little one the values of caring, honesty, and being trustworthy. After all, these were the values that their parents bestowed upon them. However, later that same day Lucy had to handle a tense situation at work where a fellow colleague was causing trouble with one of her projects. Instead of applying the same values that she was teaching her daughter, Lucy decided to be deceitful to gain an upper hand in the situation and force her colleague to “get in line”. After all, the corporate world has taught her that this is how things get done.

This is a fictional scenario but one that many who work in the corporate world experience time and again. Unfortunately, the behaviors that are often required to move ahead are quite unhealthy. The values of deceit, greed, mean-spiritedness, and aggression are encouraged because they are viewed as critical to being able to move strategies and projects along. Meanwhile, those who are parents teach quite the opposite values at home. Therefore, these same parents are being forced to live a type of “split personality” by the corporate world.

How the corporate world behaved in the past:

The corporate world was not always pushing unhealthy human values, causing a split personality existence. In the 1950s and 60s home life and work life shared the same values. In fact, companies were viewed as playing a “paternal role” towards their employees. A study by William Whyte brought to life in his book “Organization Man” showcased how employees gladly embraced a conformist way of living because doing so was a win-win for themselves and their employers – they would have stable prosperity and their companies would have loyalty and hard work. There was a shared purpose, reliable security, and a decent work-life-balance. It was a great relationship.

Why did the corporate world change its behavior?

As the decades passed, several dynamics broke this harmonious relationship between the corporate world and employees. Social movements ushered in greater individuality. Financial depressions made companies focus more on themselves versus their employees, and wars (including the Cold War) heightened existential fears. However, the real tipping point happened in the 1980s when the Reagan Administration in the United States introduced financial deregulation. It marked the permanent death of the “Organization Man”.

The corporate world was ecstatic with financial deregulation and those that led it became very wealthy. The “Greed Is Good” mentality celebrated in the movie “Wall Street”, seeped into the fabric of the corporate world. Everyone wanted more. Consequently, people began to behave under a different set of values. The excessive consumption ideology kicked-in. Even though markets where doing well, not all people could attain the same level of wealth. Therefore, competing by all means necessary to “win more” (more praise, more promotions, more money) became a common way of operating in the corporate world. As the divide between the haves and have-nots grew (see Pew Research report) so did the jealousy and anger, resulting in even harsher behaviors at work.

What unhealthy dynamics has the behavior of the corporate world unleashed?

The toll on society that this split personality way of living is having (brought about by the corporate world) is profound (see Chapter 4: “Work, In Progress” by Frank Mertens 2018). The global rise in depression and substance abuse has steadily grown in line with greater income inequality propelled by the corporate world, as has greater marital stress, obesity, rage, and child abuse. It is important to underscore that there are many factors driving the growth of these global issues. However, the notable role that corporate world plays – one that forces humans to live with conflicting values to “keep up with Joneses” – is unquestionable.

The corporate world is being forced to change. Why?

We have reached a point where the issue of championing unhealthy values in the corporate world needs to be addressed. The status quo is no longer possible because Millennials demand change, and society needs change. Millennials have seen their parents suffer under the split-personality way of living. They have seen them get ill from too much stress, get laid-off, be unable to spend time with the family due to the demands from work, and be seriously unhappy because of the brutality of their work place environment. As a result, Millennials are choosing employment options where the values that they hold dear are reflected in how a company operates and how it behaves in the world at large. The corporate world is being forced to change.

This is fantastic because the impact could be very positive – in how family life becomes more complete, personal health has a better chance of being kept in check, and work life become less of a chore and more of a pleasure. There is a lot of work to do but it is high-time that we course correct this unhealthy corporate behavior.