by Matt Boltz
I initially started Boltz & Co. to provide temporary contractor services to existing Accounting, Financial Planning & Analysis, Project Management, and Operations teams that needed some short-term help. This is still one of the main services we offer. However, my true passion and a subject I am obsessed with is corporate culture and helping organizations and their employees work together to build a better culture. We are at a point in time when we need to reexamine the role of the “workplace” in society and we need to put some time and effort into building an effective organizational culture. A number of studies have been conducted that show how dissatisfied people are with their jobs. I want to help people enjoy their jobs more and I want organizations to change policies that are increasing their costs through developing a negative culture. There were a couple of incidents in the past few years that solidified my decision to include organizational culture and development strategy as a part of the business.
Around 2013 I was dropping my son off at his daycare center. There was a woman with her daughter in the lobby. The little girl was around 3 years old and she was having a meltdown of catastrophic proportions. The mom was extremely frustrated, as most parents get in this situation, and she kept telling her daughter “Don’t do this to me today, I have to get to work.” That phrase stuck in my head and instantly made me think “How did we get to this point in society where our work obligations have a greater need over our own children?” I understand the importance of producing goods and services. I get that we must make money to pay bills, have hobbies, and save for retirement but as a society and a culture we need to find a better balance between work and personal time.
I was also seeing people around me and hearing stories of people having health and relationship issues due to work. I experienced some health issues for a few months due to work related stress as well. There is also the issue of the sedentary lifestyle that a lot of our jobs promote. The human body wasn’t built to sit in a cubicle in front of a computer screen for 8 or more hours a day. Technological advances should have made us work less hours and make our jobs easier, but it seems like the opposite is true. Checking email on your phone has become second nature to some of us. The ease of access to work and the demands of some jobs have caused problems in many relationships. There have been a number of divorces due to the friction between how best to allocate a person’s time and find work/life balance.
I have spent a lot of time over the last few years reading, thinking, and talking to people about the impacts work is having on our society. The results are not positive in a lot of ways. There are also negative effects to our children and how they are being raised. I have a ton of respect for people who work in daycare centers and before/after school programs. These are very difficult jobs. However, I believe our kids would be better off in the long run if the parents were raising their kids and spending more time with them. We need to analyze the path we are going down and rethink if this is what we want our lives and our children’s lives to be.
At Boltz & Co. we are about bold, new ideas in how organizations and their employees operate and interact. The silent generation and baby boomers are exiting the workplace and Gen Xers and Millennials are the majority in the labor force. It’s time to discuss the future of work and the effects our current environment is having on our culture and society. Does your organization have effective policies and a strong culture to manage this generational shift? Is morale low at your workplace? Why are some people leaving their jobs and why do some stay? These are the types of questions we can help your organization answer. Thank you and we look forward to partnering with you.
Around 2013 I was dropping my son off at his daycare center. There was a woman with her daughter in the lobby. The little girl was around 3 years old and she was having a meltdown of catastrophic proportions. The mom was extremely frustrated, as most parents get in this situation, and she kept telling her daughter “Don’t do this to me today, I have to get to work.” That phrase stuck in my head and instantly made me think “How did we get to this point in society where our work obligations have a greater need over our own children?” I understand the importance of producing goods and services. I get that we must make money to pay bills, have hobbies, and save for retirement but as a society and a culture we need to find a better balance between work and personal time.
I was also seeing people around me and hearing stories of people having health and relationship issues due to work. I experienced some health issues for a few months due to work related stress as well. There is also the issue of the sedentary lifestyle that a lot of our jobs promote. The human body wasn’t built to sit in a cubicle in front of a computer screen for 8 or more hours a day. Technological advances should have made us work less hours and make our jobs easier, but it seems like the opposite is true. Checking email on your phone has become second nature to some of us. The ease of access to work and the demands of some jobs have caused problems in many relationships. There have been a number of divorces due to the friction between how best to allocate a person’s time and find work/life balance.
I have spent a lot of time over the last few years reading, thinking, and talking to people about the impacts work is having on our society. The results are not positive in a lot of ways. There are also negative effects to our children and how they are being raised. I have a ton of respect for people who work in daycare centers and before/after school programs. These are very difficult jobs. However, I believe our kids would be better off in the long run if the parents were raising their kids and spending more time with them. We need to analyze the path we are going down and rethink if this is what we want our lives and our children’s lives to be.
At Boltz & Co. we are about bold, new ideas in how organizations and their employees operate and interact. The silent generation and baby boomers are exiting the workplace and Gen Xers and Millennials are the majority in the labor force. It’s time to discuss the future of work and the effects our current environment is having on our culture and society. Does your organization have effective policies and a strong culture to manage this generational shift? Is morale low at your workplace? Why are some people leaving their jobs and why do some stay? These are the types of questions we can help your organization answer. Thank you and we look forward to partnering with you.