The Joy of Having a Boss Who Sees You as Human

Instead of just a number on a spreadsheet

For once, when someone says ‘this workplace is a family’ I actually believe them. | Photo by Oleg Illarionov on Unsplash

An Amazon worker dies on the floor and his coworkers are forced to work around him.

This has happened multiple times, most recently this April down in Oregon. It happens a lot, actually. Warehouse workers get severely hurt or killed, corporate treats it like a statistic, and management just keeps everybody focused on the job while their friend lies on the cold hard concrete floor.

There have been other incidents. A few years back, a tornado ripped down a candle factory, killing ten people, and the company just shrugged. They ordered the rest of their workers at other locations to report to work as usual, even as they frantically demanded answers about whether their friends and coworkers were even alive.

It later came out that the workers were threatened and forced to stay at work as the tornado moved their way. They had time to escape. Management wouldn’t let them.

Big corporations tend to lose sight of the humanity of their workers. It’s a bottom line deal; profit over people. We know how this story goes.

They expect the rest of their workers to keep going like good little drones. Work through the trauma and the grief, don’t let productivity falter.

I couldn’t stand to live like that. I’m so grateful I don’t have to.

We have a number of people out at my store, and our schedule is a wreck. Somebody is out due to a serious medical event. Someone else had a surgery. Someone else is transferring to a different store where they’ll be better able to work full hours and care for their special needs kid closer to home.

My boss is making arrangements to ensure everybody can rest and recover, and everyone is in the best possible position to meet their individual needs.

I’m scheduled for half shifts for the week my spouse is visiting, as my boss wanted to give us time to spend together even though we’re short staffed. All I had to do was ask, and she jumped to fix it for us.

She arranged so I have extra shifts around his visit so I won’t lose out on too many hours.

We’ve had people be out for weeks with illness or injury. My boss takes it in stride.

My boss’s favourite refrain when we come to her with health issues, life events and problems is, “Take your time. Your job will be here when you get back.”

My boss has gone to the hospital with staff members. She has attended funerals with staff members who lost family and need support. She bends over backwards, burning herself out to have our backs.

She moves heaven and earth to keep us up. Because to her, we are people.

She knows us. Our stories. What’s going on in our lives. She tells us about what’s going on in hers. All she asks is that we show up and do our jobs, and the rest is all gravy.

We hold up our end of the bargain, and she will make shit work.

She’ll go to bat for us. She’ll stand up for us. And that kind of loyalty is contagious — you can bet your ass that we respect her for it. I’ve heard several people comment that she’s the best boss any of us could hope for.

If someone died on the floor, you can bet we wouldn’t be asked to work around them. She’d be the first to leap in and try to help. She’d cry with us. She’d be there at the funeral. She’d host a memorial.

She’d never stop talking about it. Because to her, we aren’t numbers on a spreadsheet.

And that’s the way it should be. People over profit. Humanity on full display.

Community.

Solidarity wins.

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