Protecting Our People’s Right to a Full Life – a policy
Core Purpose
Every person has the right to a full, rich life outside of work. It is fundamental to who we are as an organization. No one should sacrifice their personal life, family time, or wellbeing because they’ve become “indispensable” to our operations.
Why This Matters
1. Life Comes First
- People deserve to be fully present for their children’s birthdays
- Vacations should be times of real relaxation, not constant check-ins
- Family events, holidays, and personal milestones should be celebrated without work interruption
- Weekends belong to our people, not to our company
- Sick days are for getting better, not answering urgent calls
2. Protecting Personal Time
- No one should miss their child’s school play because “only they know how to fix it”
- No one should have their vacation interrupted because “we can’t do this without them”
- No one should lose sleep because they’re the “only one who can handle this client”
- No one should miss family dinner because they’re the “only one who knows the system”
Our Stand
If anyone becomes “indispensable,” we have failed as an organization. We have failed to:
- Respect their right to a life outside work
- Build proper systems and processes
- Foster true teamwork and knowledge sharing
- Live up to our values
Corrective Action
When someone becomes indispensable:
- Recognize this as an organizational failure – specifically, a leadership failure
- Immediately redistribute knowledge and responsibilities to protect the person
- Fix the systemic issues that allowed this to happen
- Hold the responsible manager accountable through performance management
- If a manager persistently creates conditions where people become indispensable or overworks people despite intervention, termination may be necessary because they have demonstrated inability to lead in ways that honor human dignity
Prevention
We protect our people’s right to a life by:
- Building redundancy into all critical functions
- Ensuring knowledge is shared across teams
- Creating clear documentation
- Cross-training as a standard practice
- Planning for absences and transitions
- Celebrating time off and work-life boundaries
Leadership Commitment
Leaders are responsible for:
- Protecting everyone’s right to disconnect from work
- Building systems that don’t depend on individual heroes
- Creating a culture where taking time off is celebrated
- Ensuring no one becomes a single point of failure
Remember: If someone can demonstrate they’ve become indispensable, we have failed organizationally and we’ve failed them as human beings. We’ve allowed a situation where their personal life can be held hostage by work demands. That sucks for all of us.
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photo by Rahul Saraf