The Healthy Workplace Nudge

Chapter 5In Search of Wholeness

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

—Plato

Bob, the CEO of a 2,000-employee global civil construction firm, brought me in to help his senior team navigate some thorny issues. But later, as Bob and I talked privately, I began to see the real reason for my visit. He was wrestling with hard realities built into the nature of his business. He just needed a friend, especially one who was an outsider, and a safe place to talk. I listened carefully. Because their projects cover the globe and last three or more years, Bob's firm often required employees to be away from their homes for months at a time. Bob slowly unpacked his thoughts through great emotion; I could see the concurrent pulls of his responsibility as CEO and his love and pain for the people who worked for him.

“We have a joke around the company,” he said as he stirred his drink, “You can't make senior project manager until your second marriage.”

Once again, I heard the same familiar hard business choice. It takes a strong leader to turn a project into a highly profitable success story. But that so often gets leveraged on the back of marriage and family. Conversely, a “good family man” has large and compelling reasons to avoid spending months away from home in remote sites.

That is one of the classic dilemmas of capitalism. And the most common response to that problem has typically been some version of, “Look, it's not personal; it's business.” Well, guess what? That position ...