"THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!"
(and other guilt trips your nonprofit employer uses to farm your allegiance)
I was meeting with a friend over coffee a few weeks ago. She is a career fundraiser, like me, though our work styles couldn't be any more different.
She's a very head-down, get-the-job-done, go-home kind of person. I respect it!
Some office cultures look at someone like her and see her as unapproachable. Uncooperative. Unwilling to collaborate — though that couldn't be further from the truth in her case. Unfortunately, my friend is no stranger to this experience.
(This is what happens when belonging isn't embraced — people are ostracized, "othered," when they work in a manner that is countercultural, though it's the most effective approach for them.)
Bri Gerzevske
During our time together, she said something that made me pause — that her work is a reflection of her loyalty to the organization, not some workplace clique.
I wondered aloud, Should you be loyal to the organization you work for?
THE EXHAUSTION OF EXTRACTION
As it is, I am wary of pledging allegiance to an institution — even if it's the thing that pays your bills, or, in the instance of nonprofit work, a mission you care about. Especially since there is plenty of evidence to suggest that nonprofits can be extractive of their employees' time and energy. They hijack moral authority to farm loyalty.
Need more proof? Think of what we talk about in the sector. All. The. Time:
- Worker burn-out
- High turnover
- The expectation of unpaid and underpaid labor
- Emotional labor of self-sacrifice and martyrdom
- The passion tax/subsidy
In other words, we're taught to believe that if we're not going above and beyond, we're never going to achieve our mission. Children will starve, animals will die, and all hope is lost.
And nonprofits will exploit that.
It's a particularly tricky trapdoor in the nonprofit world. After all, most of us in the nonprofit sector have big hearts. Of course, it doesn't help we still exist in that "rise and grind" culture that the LinkedIn finance bros and nepo babies ascribe to — a recipe for disaster, wherever you work.
Bri Gerzevske
LOYALTY WILL NOT PROTECT YOU
If I've said it once, I've said it 600 times:
Your dedication, your loyalty, your pursuit of professional development, your performance, albeit excellent — none of it can protect your job or your livelihood.
And that's all.
No questions asked.
What you pour into your work will never be reciprocated by your employer — a harsh lesson I learned a year and a half ago.
Bri Gerzevske
THE SOLUTION
You don't have to pledge allegiance to an institution in order to justify your work style, your heart, or your boundaries.
Redirect your loyalty.
Don't be loyal to an organization.
Don't even be loyal to a cause.
Be loyal to yourself.
