Systems We Inherited

Family is the word we reach for when we want to signal that people matter. That there is genuine care. That someone will show up for you beyond the transaction of employment.

I did not realize until much later in my career how lucky I had been.

The 40-hour work week was designed for a world that no longer exists. And we have never seriously redesigned it.

I have sat in more calibration meetings than I can count. Thoughtful leaders gather with their initial rankings, often with genuine care for the people being discussed. The conversations are measured and professional. Cases are made thoughtfully. Managers advocate for their teams. Adjustments are debated carefully, sometimes down to the smallest distinctions.

At least in the Hunger Games, the tributes knew the rules.

Over the years, I have participated in countless promotional discussions. Most began the same way: thoughtful leaders gathered around a table, committed to making fair decisions. Performance histories were reviewed, achievements discussed, and potential debated with genuine seriousness. No one entered those conversations intending unfairness.

There is a familiar narrative repeated in leadership meetings, performance reviews, and offhand conversations in break rooms across industries.

Not long ago, one of my children asked me a question that stayed with me far longer than they likely intended: "Why do adults work so much if they don't seem happy doing it?"