Saying No....

We are struggling mightily with the word no. No, you can’t go there. No, you can’t do that. It’s tough especially for a gen-xer like myself who’s inner response skews toward eff it.  

Going forward, because time goes only in one direction for most of us, we are going to have to look at our relationship with the word no.  We started out mid century with workers and productivity and moved on to human capital and share dividends by late century. No this is not an anti-capitalist screed, capitalism is why a number of small companies have been able to pivot and wack back at this economic moment.  We have moved into an era where our social actions are monetized and we trade in social capital.  Somehow in all of this, much of our worklife &  social economy have embraced a never say no position, this, I believe has made us vulnerable.

“No you can’t miss yet another shift, I don’t care if you’re sick” if you’ve spent any time as an hourly worker you’ve heard that one, especially in service work.  “No you can not take more time to care for your people!” I find it interesting that two of the co-morbidities of this virus are hypertension and diabetes, conditions that are impacted by saying no.

We must have a conversation about our expansive capitalistic yes, and bring to it a few stalwart no.  No, you can not work this shift, yes your job will still be here.  No you shouldn’t be here, yes go home and care for your people.  “No, I will not work on your brief this weekend, yes I will have something to present,  No, I will not travel this week, Yes my job is important to me, No I can’t work a second double.” Understanding this use of No will take time,  because it is not one sided. It’s between employee and employer , student and teacher, children and parents, and between spouses.  Maybe that’s what we are learning now.

G