Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
Join James and Coby from Roman 3 as they diagnose issues and prescribe solutions to today's most important workplace challenges.
Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
What Trends Should I Pay Attention To In 2026?
Send us a Message! (But we can’t respond, so feel free to email us at info@roman3.ca)
This episode touches on the theme of Strengthen Culture.
In this episode, we dig into some buzzwords, like Coffee Badging, Fauxductivity, and Bare Minimum Mondays, so James can rant about how lame they are. We also explore trends and terms that are starting to shine a spotlight on hidden issues impacting our workplaces, like:
- Culture Rot: The slow decline of a company's internal health due to a failure of leadership to trust employees or adapt to modern needs.
- Anti-Perks: Superficial office benefits (like free snacks) that employees now view as negative because they often mask systemic issues.
- Well-Being Washing: When organizations promote mental health initiatives for PR but do not provide meaningful support or sustainable workloads.
- Emotional Paycheck: Aspects such as recognition, purpose, and strong relationships that employees increasingly prioritize alongside their salary.
Our prescription for this episode is to avoid performative solutions and seek to address job dissatisfaction if you really want to make a difference in your workplace.
Past Episode Referenced:
S2 E3: Why Do Companies Default To Using Policies As Weapons?
S4 E9: What Is Some Practical Psychology For The Workplace? [PART 3]
To talk more about addressing job dissatisfaction, reach out to us at info@roman3.ca or through our LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/roman3
Don't forget to sign up for our New Quarterly Newsletter that launched in the fall of 2024!
About Our Hosts!
James is an experienced business coach with a specialization in HR management and talent attraction and retention.
Coby is a skilled educator and has an extensive background in building workforce and organizational capacity.
For a little more on our ideas and concepts, check out our Knowledge Suite or our YouTube Channel, Solutions Explained by Roman 3.
Breaking down everyday workplace issues and diagnosing the hidden sickness, not just the obvious symptom. Our hosts, James and Coby.
[COBY]:Did we lose a patient?
[JAMES]:No, that's just my lunch.
[COBY]:Hey, thanks for joining us. I'm Coby, he's James. And let's get started with a question. What trends should, should I pay attention to in 2026?
[JAMES]:Yeah. Okay. so I don't actually have a great answer to this starting out because Coby for some reason wanted to keep me in the dark about, the content of this episode, which usually means that he's found something that's going to irritate me and he just wants to make fun of me ranting about something. So I guess over to you, Coby.
[COBY]:Yes, absolutely. So, we were talking about us wanting to kind of like do a bit, a bit of. A bit of a look ahead for 2026. and so when I was doing some kind of reading into kind of like what are some trends, what are some kind of, kind of concepts that would be kind of helpful for people to kind of be aware of or know kind of that there's some kind of like, general conversation going on in different business communities and industries. And I, and I came across some stuff that I just want your, like, I, I want, I want, I want our listeners to, to experience your just initial reaction to. Like, I, I think it's going to be great.
[JAMES]:Yeah. Okay. Okay. Gotta remember this is still filtered podcast, James. So semi, Semi professional at least.
[COBY]:Yeah, yeah. but, but one of the things I, I thought is that, that that I'm actually really excited about talking about. So some of the things that we're going to get to probably kind of later on in the episode are going to be some things that I'm actually really encouraged for us to talk about with our listeners because you and I are often talking about, kind of the more kind of like under the surface, kind of like, you know, infrastructural or like hidden trends or hidden kind of impacts and hidden risks. A lot of. And when we are talking to businesses or talking to organizations or, you know, or prospective clients, we have to do a lot of like, customer education around, like, you know, here's something that you've never really thought about that's actually putting you at risk, or here's something that's actually hurting your productivity but doesn't look like you don't see it every day, that doesn't show up on the balance sheet or those kinds of things, and it's, it's One of the, it's a, ah, it's just one of the things we have to do a lot when we're engaging in conversations. so what's kind of interesting is that some of the stuff that I found for us to talk about, some of the trends that are going to be a big part 2026 are actually things that there's language around the stuff that we are talking about. It's almost like, allows us almost like potentially use some of this kind of.
[JAMES]:Co op, the language that is becoming more popular.
[COBY]:Yeah. Or so like, you know, the kind of like the you know, societal zeitgeist is now almost like kind of caught up with some of the stuff that we've been talking about for the last four seasons. And they're giving some really targeted, some impactful language that ideally will allow for a more shared kind of vernacular when we're talking to potential clients or to kind of other people that will allow for ideally a, you know, more of that shared conversation on same page piece that will, may allow for the customer education piece for us and our partners and all. And honestly these are things that HR professionals and managers have been talking about, not just us, for a long time now actually might allow this to bubble to the top more because there's more almost like kind of momentum behind these terms that could actually really be helpful. Okay, yeah. So, but before we do that,
[JAMES]:Yeah. All right, here we go.
[COBY]:So while I was looking for those pieces, I came across some stuff that I'm reading them is like there are some buzzwords out there that are pretty awful that I think you're just going to absolutely hate. so I really thought.
[JAMES]:Thanks.
[COBY]:We should talk about those first. All right, so, yeah, so there's some fun terminology existing in our workplaces that kind of, you know, that are things that people are googling or that you'll see in, you know, some like industry journals or, or people talking about them that I think are not great. I think you're gonna hate them. so let's just jump into a few and I would love your just your unfiltered reaction to them.
[JAMES]:Okay. My blood pressure is rising already, so let's just hit it and get into it.
[COBY]:All right, so the first one is the term coffee badging, which is when employees show up for optics, grab a coffee chat, then leave, which is kind of like a, ah, reaction to the return to work, return to office mandates coffee badging. Coffee badging.
[JAMES]:Okay, I, I get that you want to make return to work. I don't know how you make the return to work efforts dumber, but apparently we, we've succeeded. I mean, coffee. Okay, sure, whatever. Coffee badging. So you show up to the office, you get your coffee, you sign in and then you disappear.
[COBY]:Maybe wave at your boss, probably wave.
[JAMES]:At your boss, make sure that you're seen. And then you hide in a dark corner or, with your coffee or you just leave.
[COBY]:Yeah, I guess so.
[JAMES]:As much as I hate the term, I kind of admire the guts for lack of a, for more, user friendly term, that it takes to actually kind of pull that off. Because that's immediate grounds for discipline. Right? You're, you're showing up, you're logging in, you're waving, and then you're pissing off for the rest of the day.
[COBY]:Yeah. Yeah.
[JAMES]:Okay, cool.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:I mean, coffee. So. Yeah, all right. Legitimately hate it. I hate the term. I think it's idiotic. And if you're using. This is the thing you said you got some of these from like industry journals and these are things that are popping up in like, not just social media, because social media is dumb to begin with.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:It's actually showing up in written works, in articles. And like, this is, this is the problem that. Well, I mean, I've, I've ranted about this since, well, our first season, but before our first season about how much I despise the guru culture that. Especially the guru culture that kind of forms around, social media. Call it influencer culture of people who have zero substance, who just create these idiotic terms to make themselves sound and feel important.
[COBY]:Yeah. Yeah.
[JAMES]:Anyways.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:Yep. Okay. You, you got what you wanted. Congratulations.
[COBY]:Yeah. Oh. Oh, and they don't get better. yeah, no, but like, you're, you're right. I mean there is, is like I have to wonder when I'm, when, when I'm finding these that. Because again, some of these are like them trying to say there's a new thing going on there and it has a name and that's something that, you know, if there is a new phenomenon, if there is a new way to talk about something that is. It's really impactful.
[JAMES]:Look, being labeling something makes m it easier for us to identify. There's nothing wrong with creating a term or finding a term that describes a certain set of actions, behaviors, or instances that we can now point to and say that thing that we are seeing is called this. That is very helpful.
[COBY]:It is. And something that we look for when we're trying to say like there's a word to kind of identify, almost shine a light on a hidden risk. Like we love when.
[JAMES]:But it feels like it's clickbait, right?
[COBY]:Yeah. Yeah.
[JAMES]:And that's, that's the problem. It's, it's social media influencer crap. Guru crap clickbait.
[COBY]:Well, and the thing is too is I wonder, like you said, like the, the guts that would take to do this. I wonder if people are actually doing this or is this more of a like trying to feed the anxiety of managers. So they're reading these, these articles because, oh my gosh, is this something that my staff is doing? I need to look out for this new thing.
[JAMES]:That's exactly it. It is preying on the fears of leaders, and managers who are going through these return to work orders who probably didn't have any choice in the matter that they're forcing. You know, it's probably coming from higher ups who are forcing everybody back to work. And you've got mid level managers who have anxiety around. You know, are people going to be upset? And influencers are really good at elevating people's anxiety. Right. That's how you get clicks. So I, I, it's, there's a difference between have people done this before? And do people do this right?
[COBY]:Or yeah. Or is it the idea of there's probably a very minor proportion of people that have done this, but let's make everyone anxious about it, and pretend that it's a bigger thing than it is because that's going to drive more, more traffic to our, our articles or our sites or social media. All right, on that same note, here's the next one.
[JAMES]:I hate you so much.
[COBY]:Faux ductivity. And this is a term that is not exclusive to AI, but is, but is, it's kind of like associated with AI, but where teams kind of create almost like AI generated outputs to kind of show things that are moving along. They can, they can make things happen fast. So there's, there's more volume than there is like, like, you know, value. But it's the idea of like, you know, fake productivity.
[JAMES]:Oh, just producing a ton of low quality, high yield information to basically just an information dump to pretend that you've been working.
[COBY]:Yeah. And I think that, I think that's the AI specific like, you know, like flavor of this productivity term. But I think what, but I think there's that, but I think it's actually more of the performative productivity theater that we talked about for years almost like trying to like update that term. The term wasn't sexy enough, so now they're trying to.
[JAMES]:I mean, it's a stupid term, but I don't actually hate it as much as I hate the coffee bagging or coffee badging or whatever it is. Because I mean, I mean there, there is a lot of, I mean, if we're talking performative actions. Right? Yeah, there's a, there are a lot of performative actions in our organizations. Right. There's a lot of instances where people go through the motions of looking busy. So calling that fake productivity, faux productivity. It, it's. No, it's not a term that I would use in a serious conversation, but I hate it far less than the first one.
[COBY]:Yeah, well, and the thing too is like the, the idea of like, again, I question, are there people that are just like getting AI to write something, not reading it, passing it in, you know?
[JAMES]:Yes. Because I don't remember what the context was, but I actually like, in an actual like newspaper, they actually still have newspapers. People. Amazing. copied and pasted a sales ad that had the, you know how at the end of like a prompt, chat GBT will be like, do you want me to generate this thing next? They had that at the bottom of their ad. Okay, Copy and paste a chat GPT or any AI, response and submit it as a, paid advertisement.
[COBY]:Right?
[JAMES]:Yeah. At least do some proofreading, folks.
[COBY]:Right. Okay, so then, then that brings me to, to another one that's called work slop. Work slop, which is low quality AI generated sludge and poor outputted materials that are just submitted that end up like clogging down like, you know, like, like meeting, meeting the deadlines. But like clogs, clogs your workflow, like, and then, and kind of like, kind of like, you know, create.
[JAMES]:That's just being bad at your job.
[COBY]:And that's just it.
[JAMES]:Right?
[COBY]:Like, I mean, because like AI slow.
[JAMES]:Why do we need it. Why do we need another term for people who suck at their job?
[COBY]:Well, so like, I think it's because the, the term AI, like AI slop, I've been hearing more and more outside the workplace where it's just the, like the, the poor quality, low AI generated garbage that, that's out there. That's kind of like, that's like again, it's like clogging up our social media, clogging up kind of like all the kind of stuff like that. And this is just the work version of that. But I think it, but like, I think it is just that people generate, you know, like I said, an article where someone generates something for a newspaper and then they just cut and paste and don't proofread it and don't.
[JAMES]:Yeah, I bet you that's where some of these stupid terms come from is they, they're AI generated terms for Yeah, Right. Somebody has an, the briefest notion of an idea for an article, they toss it into chat GPT with creating buzzwords that. And that'll catch, that'll be attention.
[COBY]:Yeah, no, no, you're right.
[JAMES]:Like AI slop feeding all of the rest of this AI, all this crap.
[COBY]:No, that's actually a really good point.
[JAMES]:Well, and this is, this is tangent, time again. so we're here. You, you opened the floodgates, man.
[COBY]:I did? Oh yeah.
[JAMES]:This is your fault. So what drives me about the, the AI slop? The. It can be such a useful tool. Like there's, there's so many ways that like we have started to figure out ways to incorporate AI into some of what we do, but. Well, I mean we had an entire podcast episode where we talked about it. Like we refer to, when we're using AI, we refer to it as the intern because we treat it like an intern. Right. I am not going to send a client work that an intern has done without going through it with a fine tooth comb. Right. Because it may be a great intern. It may be, but that's, that's the quality level that we're really dealing with at this stage is that, you know, it can produce some really interesting ideas and some decent materials and very, short order. But it is a tool. It's not the be all and end all that some, many people are making it out to being and that a lot of people are starting to like this idea of. I can't imagine I would be so flipping angry if I had staff members just submitting AI prompts to me when I'm asking for content, when I'm asking for something to be done. Now if they want to use AI to help them to frame out, what it is that I've asked for and how they may go about creating that, cool. That is a reasonable use. But if you're handing me AI responses that I have not been vetted, validated, or even edited. I'm going to be pissed. And that's a disciplinary action.
[COBY]:Agreed. Like one of the things that like, like we kind of go into organizations and when we're helping rebuild their internal infrastructure to kind of Stabilize them and allow them to scale. One of the things that we do is we teach a lot of the, we teach a lot of kind of the, the key staff how to maximize the productivity using AI. Yeah, but like, you know, we, because again, the overworked HR professionals were like, hey, let's, let's create a like a custom GPT for you so you can actually, you know, start to create more robust job descriptions using a set format and these kind of pieces like that. So they're not so able to actually like, you know, create the output based on very careful, you know, like, like prompt engineering and crafting and then looking for the ability to kind of have them reviewed and for, for kind of quality assurance. But it allows us to build capacity in the organizations by giving them like, you know, walking them through how to use these tools. Like I had a staff in one of the organizations that I'm working with right now that wanted to figure out a way to measure something that, that their clients are experiencing. But there's no tool or no process. So, so we worked through with, with a couple of different, different AI tools to kind of like try and like deconstruct and break down and look for kind of trends kind of across the province, kind of across, you know, like in North America to looking first, what are the things that were missing? And we were able to create a really effective. Almost like it was just, it was just a simple like intake checklist but something that would really spoke to the need where before there was nothing that existed. And this and this, this was a newer staff that wasn't used to being able to building new tools or building new things for their job. They're used to just things being handed to them. So building that capacity in them, letting them, you know, be, you know, work through it and letting them a few different approaches, approaches via different models and then testing it. That builds real capacity in, in staff for productivity rather than just, you know, than just saying, you know, here's, you know, like here's just something that I, I didn't even read. You know, let's go with that.
[JAMES]:If you have a, a volume of repetitive tasks, not even repetitive but tasks that you are required to do regularly. Like you. The, the example with the HR program, person that's a really good use because you can set parameters around what it is that you're doing. You can create that fence. Because the problem is, and I think where a lot of people go wrong is that they'll just use like a, like the free Version, and they'll throw a random prompt in and they will take whatever it generates. And when it pulls from like, I mean the other piece is that these large language models are pulling from data from across the Internet. It's not evaluating what is right and wrong, it's pulling all of this information in. So unless you have clear parameters around what you want, what you don't want, how it's to be structured and create those rules of engagement, you're going to be getting low quality. What was the term? Slope?
[COBY]:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So, all right, so I got one more that I want to talk about and then let's talk about some of the good, some of, some of the things that are moving, moving in the better direction. So so the last one of these terms I want your, your reaction to is, bare minimum Mondays, where employees pace themselves after long weekends.
[JAMES]:Where that's Monday. It's just called Monday. Nobody's productive at 8:30, on a Monday morning. Everybody takes. Yeah, okay, again, fear mongering. This is, this is the targeted towards the, to you know, mid level maybe senior managers who are worried that their employees are milking them for everything they've got and everything's a fight and everything's a battle and I have to be on top of people all the day. What was it? Bare minimum Monday, Bare minimum Mondays?
[COBY]:Yeah, yeah, I think I, I think.
[JAMES]:Okay, no, I'm not done. Here's the other thing that drives me nuts with, with the bare minimum Monday crap is that in many jobs you are paying people to do the bare minimum. If the bare, if the minimum that is required to keep your job is not enough, then raise the standards. Right? People are always going to do the least amount of work for the most amount of money. Businesses are want people to do the most amount of work for the least amount of money. Those two expectations are in conflict all the time. Everybody in their role there are going to look for ways to do the minimum that they can to keep their paycheck, not get fired. And maybe if this is in line with the their expectations and goals, maybe they will put in the extra effort because they want a promotion. But if people are doing here drives me nuts. If people are meeting the expectations of the job, right, if they're doing the bare minimum and the bare minimum isn't good enough, then that's your fault because you've set the bare minimum too low.
[COBY]:Yeah, yeah, I did laugh when I read this one because so, so like, like the full kind of description is like employees Pays themselves after like a burnout or a long weekend and that it's a sign of low energy and weak connection to purpose and say no, I think it's actually just people.
[JAMES]:I think it's just called Monday.
[COBY]:Yeah, I think I, I think people just are less productive on Mondays in general.
[JAMES]:And I am a fair. Like in terms of like within the context of Roman 3, what we do. The fact that, you know, I, I have a job with purpose that I love, that it's that. That I find fulfilling, that I am enthusiastic about, that I want to succeed. Because I mean this is our livelihood, this is our business.I show up Monday morning tired and I need two cups of coffee before I'm productive. That doesn't mean that I have not connected to the purpose because that is like. It's just. Yes, okay, let's move on. Because I'm. I can rant more, but I don't know that that's necessarily what people want to hear.
[COBY]:All right, so let's, so let's change gears a little bit. And so there was one more term that first I didn't like the term, but then m. When I kind of dug into the concept, I was like, you know what? There may be something here because again, we don't like buzzwords that's just repackaging old things like Mondays as something that's new and scary or that it's designed to drive.
[JAMES]:They didn't call it the Garfield effect. Right. Okay, no, I will leave that alone now.
[COBY]:Or something that's trying to drive traffic to like, you know, like websites by. By kind of like capitalizing on people's fear and anxiety.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:You know though, because again, I was wondering if people were. If we were going to see a new term is. Is time renting where you. Where your employer pays you money for your time?
[JAMES]:Yeah, it's called a job.
[COBY]:Amazing.
[JAMES]:We've reinvented the world.
[COBY]:But the thing is that when there's a term or again a shorthand or shared language that helps identify threats or shine a light on an actual systemic issue that has long been ignored, that's the kind of stuff that you and I are a lot more supportive of because again, we do need to. There's so much stuff that is just status quo that is just again, unseen beneath the surface that. That is so dangerous that or. Or are signs that. Of. Of you know, areas of weakness or areas of risk. and we're gonna get into those in a minute. But there's kind of one that Kind of bridges it. It's not a term that I love, but I kind of think it gets to an actual good point which was called career cushioning. Not a great term, but it's about even engaged employees, employees that are there for, for, for kind of purpose or like that, or actually kind of connecting to the work. They quietly prepare a backup plan. Whether this is increasing their networking, focusing on skill building because of the uncertainty in their leadership or in the organizational culture.
[JAMES]:This is. Yes. Okay, so yeah, I don't love the term, but this is a legitimate thing. If the worst should happen and my the business, the organization that I'm working for downsizes and I get laid off, well, I still need to feed myself and my family. So I'm going to make sure that I have some sort of backup plan that I've been, you know, refreshing my network that I've been. Yeah, so I don't see any problem with the, with what is happening. I think it's actually a healthy thing to do.
[COBY]:So there are a lot of people that love the work that they do. Like again, we see this in kind of like the mission driven work that organizations that we work with, whether that's in the nonprofit sector or the private sector or kind of whatever it is, even in government, people that are like motivated by the work, by the client services, by the impact, by the kind of the nature of seeing a movie, of seeing helping people or moving along progression or whatever it is. And they realize though that they like they're there for the job, but if they don't live working for the company because it's the state of uncertainty in leadership or uncertainty in the culture, they are engaged, doing a good job because they're there for the work. But they also are smart enough to know that work doesn't only exist at this workplace. So if I can find an organization that gives me the same work fulfillment but also gives me a better, better leadership and better culture, I'm going to look for those.
[JAMES]:Well, and we know that people, the, the one, if not the biggest motivator, one of the biggest motivators for people to look for new employment is their direct manager supervisor, 100%. So this is why like we've been talking for years about how critically important it is to train your supervisors to train to provide good solid management skills to people who are responsible for others so that they understand how do engage with people in a professional and meaningful way. How do you build trust, how do you build rapport, relationships, how do you show appreciation and recognition. How do you provide people with the professional autonomy that they need to be able to do their jobs? All of these elements from a management perspective are part of what goes into creating an employee experience. And if you've never given any thought, time or energy into investigating or understanding how what people actually experience in their day to day, they may be wonderful employees who are dedicated to the vision, the mission of the organization, and who are actively engaged in the work. But if their management manager is inconsistent, if the rules are applied inconsistently, if they are not treated with respect, if they're not shown appreciation, you're going to lose them.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:It's not just. You cannot rely on the work to do the work of engaging and supporting your staff. That has to happen by managers.
[COBY]:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And we see this in like, even like, really technical, like, like science and high tech and those kind of pieces where people are there for, like, they're there for like the engineering. They're there for like, playing with the toys or there for like, you know, how fun the work actually is. Yeah, but. But it's often that has to make up for often when a culture is bad. So that actually. So. So that. That point. Let's build on that as we move into kind of these, I've got four trends.
[JAMES]:Okay.
[COBY]:We'll actually answer the question, what trend should I pay attention to in 2026? These four trends we're going to talk about for the rest of this conversation are actually the answer to that question. The first half of this episode was. Was. Was not.
[JAMES]:Was Coby just wanting to make me mad? So, congratulations. If you're just, let's be correct. Your anger towards him, because I will be.
[COBY]:The first part of this episode was really just for me and my own amusement. now let's actually get into the actual question. but building on what you just said, the first one I want to talk about is a term. Sorry. It's a term that I think is a really helpful trend for us to be able to again, have this shared conversation and the shared dialogue with organizations to identify risk is the term culture rot, which is the slow decline of a company's internal health due to failure of leadership to trust employees or adapt to modern needs.
[JAMES]:You can have incredibly dedicated people who are very good at their job, who are very passionate about the work that they do, who are effective in the role and are, crushing it. And by every metric that you measure, yeah. They are a star employee. And it looks like they're not going anywhere because they you know, they present as being actively engaged in the work. They, they find the work rewarding and fulfilling. So from a. How we often. How most organizations would evaluate risks around turnover. They're, They're. They would show up as pretty low risk. But if your, if your employee experience is not maintained or is not good, if your managers are not trained, if they're not con. Consistent people, if there's one thing you do just, just be consistent even if you're consistently bad. It's better than being inconsistent. But try to be at least consistently good. like these, these things do like it. It is like a slow poison.
[COBY]:Yeah. So the thing that, that, that this makes me think of immediately. and again I love that this term is now out there and someone else other than us is talking about this because we talked about this.
[JAMES]:We are now going to be able to use culture rot as a term that.
[COBY]:Right, we'll describe it. Yeah, absolutely. Because. Because we. We've done. We did an episode I think in season two and then I was on a podcast little last year. called Dear Corporate Love Stories with, with a friend of ours, Becky, Becky Kate. And in. In this episode I talked about. About the concept that we. We refer to as Using policies as, as weapons.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:The idea of again like weapons of retaliation, weapons of control, you know, those types of things and weapons of, of oppression. And this is to me that what that culture rod is is that when you, when you are weaponizing policies and you're punishing staff for the actions of a few again. And when I was on. On Becky's podcast we talked about this. A lot of. We see this with, with corporate retails. A lot of corporate retail suffer from culture because again they're weaponizing policy or they're you know, they're, they're removing the like. Almost like they're creating an us versus them with, with management and employees or, or corporate or stores in corporate or whatever it is. And they're not realizing that this is just the slow decline of the company's internal health. It's rotting from the inside. But they think that it's normal when it's not. And it's actually extremely risky.
[JAMES]:And there. The most clear example I have ever seen in my life actually came as a consumer, not as a consultant. I was in a retail store around Christmas time a year or so. I don't know if it was last year or whatever. And an employee was waiting, was finishing their shift. The manager who Was waiting on me at the, teller had to stop waiting on a customer so that they could inspect the employee's bag before they left. Because, probably somewhere at some point there was, a couple instances of employees stealing from the retail store. Yeah. Not a good thing. So what did the company decide to do? They instituted a policy that required every single employee on every shift before they leave, has to have their personal belongings inspected by the manager. It was jarring to me as a consumer to watch this happen in real time. It was jarring to me as a professional in this industry to see this type of. And anyways, I wasn't able to engage too much because not the right setting. And my wife would have been absolutely mortified if I had been myself in that situation. But it's just. It's weaponized. That is such a clear example of a policy that has been weaponized to hurt other people.
[COBY]:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And that. And to me, it's. When we start using policies to protect the organization from employees or we start again, we want to, like, again, like I told a story. I can't remember if it was, well, a podcast. It was. It might be the one about weapons policies, as weapons. We're talking about, like, you know, someone misused a company car. So, like one employee in this, like, you know, this like, multinational organization across a few different countries, one employee used a family car to go on vacation. So all. All employees that had access to, a work car were, had immediately had all of any kind of, like, benefits of that, like, taken back because one employee said it, punishing that one employee. It punished all employees, you know, like hundreds of employees. And again, these types of things are signs of the culture, Rod. We see these, we see these, we see this so, so obvious in these large corporate, multinational organizations. But I mean, and again, retail is notorious for this too. but this is one that I.
[JAMES]:Think what it shows is a complete lack of respect for your workers.
[COBY]:Yeah, right.
[JAMES]:It's because people.
[COBY]:Yeah, it's. But it's poison. It's a slow death, like you said. Yeah.
[JAMES]:It's a poison pill that you have in intentionally or unintentionally entered into your organization and it's felt by people and it is remembered.
[COBY]:Yeah. Now what's great is the next one I want to talk about is almost like when companies having incorporated these policies as weapons, like these weapons of oppression, weapons of retaliation, weapons of control, how they trying to make up for it is something that we hate, which is performative, like perks. But the term that is actually gathering some steam now is again, this trend is called anti perks, which are superficial office benefits like free snacks or pool tables in the break room that employees can now. That employees are now seeing it as actually being negative because they realize that they're trying to buy off the employees to mask the systemic issues like unpaid overtime, lack of flexibility, weaponized policies, all that kind of stuff.
[JAMES]:Yeah, I mean, what falls into it, I mean, we've talked about unlimited pto, before, and this is what comes up to me, for me, as an anti perk, frequently is the way that many companies institute a unlimited pto. Sounds really good, right? It sounds like it is just a wonderful benefit. But then they pile so much work on top of people or make such restrictive actions. I mean, how can you restrict something that's supposed to be unlimited?
[COBY]:And the thing too is, what I like is that by the idea of the anti perk is that employees are now collectively talking about. They see through these little performative benefits. Like, because we've been railing about pizza parties and, again, like, against.
[JAMES]:Like a free snack probably in our first episode.
[COBY]:Yeah, we've been talking about this. Yeah. For the last four years. But, like, even before the podcast, this is something that we. We would rail against. And then employee of the month is all these, all these performers, performative efforts.
[JAMES]:That performative engagement is how we. Or started talking about it.
[COBY]:Yeah, exactly. And that again, now the workforce is saying, okay, we all agree that this is not working. These are anti perks. These are just. These are, these are. You're trying to make up for how bad the job is, how unflexible the job is, how overworked we all are.
[JAMES]:And you want to do something that will actually help us look at workload. You want to do something that will actually help us teach my manager not to be a jerk. Right. you want to provide a perk. Provide me with a space that I can actually work in that I don't dread, that doesn't slowly destroy my soul.
[COBY]:Yeah. And that's just it, because, again, one of the things that we often do when we go into organizations is we actually look at what are some of the. Again, we say performative solutions, but I think antiperks works really well too. What are the anti perks that are existing in these workplaces because they're so transparent, people see right through them and they. They're not fooling anybody and they're actually doing way more harm than good. So we often try to, like, Address those ones, you know, kind of say. Because again, they're undercutting their message when they're trying. Because like, sometimes the anti perks aren't created out of malicious and is trying to hide something. It's they, the management team don't know any better. They think that free snacks is what will make employees happy because everyone loves food but not realizing. No, it's. They want trained managers, they want consistent workloads, they want reliability in kind of their scheduling or whatever it might be that's making employees disengaged, unhappy and dissatisfied.
[JAMES]:Yeah, Right.
[COBY]:Going back to the whole seven by three rule we talk about, I think every. Every episode, is the idea of like, you know, these are the things that if you want to actually stop having things that don't make a difference with these antiperks, the seven by three rule is how you actually can address the real things people are actually looking for. If you want to address the core.
[JAMES]:Functions of your workplace through the lens of being competitive, sufficient and equitable.
[COBY]:Yeah. Ah.
[JAMES]:If you can do that, you will transform your workplace. It is the reason why it is the basis for everything else that we do.
[COBY]:Right. So. So if you're not too sure what we're talking about with the seven by three rule, our. Our last episode where we talked about practical psychology, we dug into what's called Hertzberg's, theory, which was the catalyst for us creating seven by three rule. that's a great episode. If you want to touch. If you want to catch up on what we're talking about when we say the seven by three rule. But. Yeah, but I think the anti perks is a great term for us, identifying the fact that employees see through the facade of what businesses are trying to do to buy them off, and it's not working.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And I mean, I just want to jump, on one point that you made, because I do. I am fairly harsh in my criticisms. I think rightfully so. But I also don't believe that these things are done with malicious intent.
[COBY]:Right.
[JAMES]:I believe that 99% of the time, these are authentic actions undertaken with the desired result being better work outcomes and a better work experience. The problem is that there's a disconnect between leadership and employee or the ground floor, and we get swept up in the influencer guru garbage of you need to have unlimited m. PTO is the key to your success. So do this in this way. And, you know, we get swept up in these ideas, of what has worked in one situation. We can just without investigating or really understanding what that is, we're going to try to copy that and place it into our workplace unedited and it blows up in our face.
[COBY]:Right? Yeah, yeah. That creates consultant work slop. All right, so the next one I want to talk about is again it kind of goes back to what you're talking about with unlimited pdo, but it's called well being washing where organizations promote health and wellness initiatives. But it's really a PR effort because organizations may provide these perform solutions but don't actually provide meaningful support or sustainable workloads.
[JAMES]:As far as the term goes. This is probably the one that I like the most.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:the anti perk isn't bad now that ah. Because it. But I mean we've been. It's probably easier for people to connect to the anti perk idea than the performative solutions that we've been using. So we'll probably end up using anti perk language. but the well being washing is an interesting one because it is since COVID Mm There has been a significant recognition of the importance of maintaining wellness. Yeah. And many companies are starting to understand the importance but they don't understand what it means. Right. And so the language that they use, again I don't think this is done maliciously. I think this is done through ignorance in the true sense of the term of not knowing, where. So there's a lot of things that I think get put put into place with really good intentions to try to support well being or at least I think the problem is that language and actions don't mesh. Right. So when you have a company that is very in their communications, internally, externally very much supportive of health, wellness, mental wellness, well being, all of those terminologies and yet fail to deliver in any meaningful way to their employees, it feels like it's just a marketing exercise rather than a way of actually supporting people.
[COBY]:Yeah. Yeah. And I mean like when I think I can't think of any organization that we've worked with since COVID that wellness, employee wellness hasn't been a top priority and something that we've been trying to find practical solutions for. And one of the things that people don't love when we go into organizations like the leadership don't love is we don't have a silver bullet for wellness for people. We say it really does require a lot of work. Especially because like wellness is one of those things that's part of the seven by three rules. One of those things that creates job dissatisfaction if it's done, if it's not done competitively, sufficiently, inequitably. and one of the things that's been really helpful for us lately is one of the things that, that we've gotten a lot out of is some of the work we've done more recently in the nonprofit sector with impact organizations is we've gotten really used to living with the reality of trauma informed approaches to the workplace. And trauma informed is kind of is again a very common term with like working with like you know, high needs organizations that work with like you know, people at risk of those kinds of pieces but addressing societal.
[JAMES]:Factors around poverty, homelessness.
[COBY]:Exactly. Yeah. So, so the thing that I find really interesting about, about the trauma informed approach is that idea of we are looking at kind of like the almost like context of a person's unique situation is context to treat them equitably. And that's really kind of how I've kind of been able to merge this trauma informed approach that's been worked with frontline work to kind of like cascading through the organization is using an individual situation as context to treat them equitably is one of the things that allows us to kind of bring that more equitable pieces to the wellness. And that is not an easy thing to explain to a boardroom full of people. We're trying to talk about wellness because they want these silver bullets. They want, unfortunately they want well being.
[JAMES]:They want one policy or one program or they want a series of policies and, or programs that are going to accomplish this.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:Massive undertaking. Yeah.
[COBY]:That they can articulate very easily.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:Because there is a lot of PR attached to wellness. Let's be, you know, it's well, not.
[JAMES]:Only PR attachment like it is critical to maintaining productivity to retention, to like avoiding burnt like it mental well being. Our emotional, physical and mental well being have such a massive impact on how we show up to work.
[COBY]:Absolutely. But I mean like you know, but the problem is that we, we see these, we see these C suite teams that want a solution that will work for the guys on the floor, that will work for the folks out in the field, that will work for the office staff behind desks. They want something, they want, they want one thing that will work for everybody and they can just, that they can just put in not realizing that this idea of the trauma informed approach is again the context of the uniqueness of a situation or teams to allow for them to be treated not equally but equitably. Is how we have to approach wellness. And if we're not doing that, we are likely well being washing.
[JAMES]:Well okay, so this may sound really stupid, but what just kind of popped into my head, it's the idea of even if you can get everybody to agree that, that they like pizza, what they like on their pizza is going to be individual.
[COBY]:Right? No, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
[JAMES]:Like even if you could get people to agree that one particular thing is Going to make a difference, the way that plays out still is going to be individualized. Yeah, right. You ah, can have everybody agree that. Yeah, let's have pizza for supper. Try getting them all to agree on the same toppings on all of the pizzas across the entire organization and keeping everybody happy.
[COBY]:Yeah, yeah, you're right. So I do think that this is something that is a great term to well being washing for the idea of again it's performative solution to, to, to well, to wellness is kind of what is kind of railing against. Because the thing too is like especially when companies talk about, about wellness, they talk about this one thing, this, this pizza that they're providing. But then they're also having, you know, managers that are inconsistent, managers that are untrained, unsustainable workloads, all those other kind of pieces too. But they've got a treadmill in the.
[JAMES]:Break room but instead of making the pizza really great, they just give everybody a cheese pizza.
[COBY]:M Right. But yeah, but I mean this idea.
[JAMES]:Of I might be going too far with it, I think so I'm hungry now.
[COBY]:That's the problem. but again it's, it's this idea of again we talked about this with performative solutions. We talked about this in a few different episodes, ah, that we talked about about wellness. And so I like the idea of well being washing being a term that we can now collectively talk about more. That might actually, that might grab hold of people because there's a bit of a momentum behind it which I'm hoping will really build into 2026. So the last one I want to talk about is an emotional paycheck. Now this is the non monetary things like recognition, purpose, strong relationships that employees have, and that you know, that are increasingly more important and that they're being prioritized alongside their salary. So it's not replacing their salary but it's all the basically it's all the cultural benefits, all the job satisfaction pieces going back to Hertzberg's theory that we talked about in our last episode. It's realizing that these things Are the emotional paycheck that are just. That are just as needing to be prioritized as the actual paycheck. Because again, like we talked about kind of going back before, the idea of organizations, you know, need to, you know, the idea of like paying people to sit these organizations that do not have great cultures like getting the culture rot. One, this idea of this is the, the counter to the culture rot is these, are these emotional paycheck pieces.
[JAMES]:Yeah. I mean I don't necessarily hate the term. What jumps out at me as a potential pitfall though is that. And I think this already happens to some degree. I think you would if this, if a term like this really gains momentum. Yeah. I think the risk we run is in people trying to account for the emotional paycheck and total compensation. Right.
[COBY]:Well I, I think the, where this, this idea of the emotional paycheck should really gather a lot of momentum is actually going to be in the middle managers because I mean middle managers have very little impact on the total compensation. Those are usually done through. Right. So this, so this is something that the middle managers might be able to take more, you know, like, like they can provide a much larger emotional paycheck than maybe other middle managers and other organizations. That kind of piece too. Right. Maybe it's a matter of tackling the anti perks or maybe it's a matter of trying to combat the well being washing and actually trying to actually like truly recognize people. Trying to help them connect their jobs to purpose, helping them build stronger connections and stronger relationships and better team cohesion and be more consistent and all those kinds of pieces like that. I think that if a middle manager wanted to take away from this episode is that they should be in, they should be the champions to increase their employees emotional paychecks.
[JAMES]:Yes. And I. Okay. And I think as a manager do not use that term with your employees.
[COBY]:No.
[JAMES]:Right. As a way of understanding the emotional perks. Yes. But that is not language that is going to resonate with staff. If you say and here's your emotional paycheck, I'm doing X, Y and Z for you, it's going to come across as incredibly condescending. Even though I know again it's not meant that way. May be very authentic what you're trying to do, but perception shapes reality. So let's as, let's try to get ahead of it and let's try to not present that opportunity, for misunderstanding.
[COBY]:No, that's, that's a good point. Okay, so this has been a really, really Good conversation. and I got what I wanted out of taking you off and.
[JAMES]:Yeah. Yeah, thanks.
[COBY]:This is even better episode for me. I hope you Listening, listening. Enjoyed it. But I, I really got a lot of this episode. but yeah, just. But just as. As a little bit of a recap, I want, I just kind of want to reference the fact that there are a lot of buzzwords out there that are written to prey on, you know, fears of managers and executives and stuff like that that are really trying to drive traffic to kind of clickbaity articles that really are the relabeling of old things. or just trying to poke at your anxieties about how your staff are taking things, away from you almost. They're almost like trying to cause diversity more division in our workplace.
[JAMES]:If it, if it's setting you up against your employees, it's probably a performative or a bad solution.
[COBY]:Yeah. But there are some things that, some language that is really helpful for us to kind of have, have this shared, you know, vocabulary when it comes to working. You know, to be able to understand things and identify things better. Because we can't identify issues, it's really hard to. To resolve them. Ideas like the current. The the culture rot as a good term for us to recognize the slow decline of, of our company's internal health is a helpful term about how there are some things that are poisoning our workplaces and usually is about the erosion of trust and the inconsistency of leadership tends to be a big part of that. Weaponizing policies anti perks is a good term for the superficial office benefits that employees understand are actually negative because they mask systemic issues. Well being washing as the idea of these, more PR approach to mental health initiatives that actually have very little impact and don't actually provide the support they need or actually address things like overworked staff or inconsistent managers or all these other kind of pieces that, that actually are what really take down people's wellness. But realizing too that the idea of the emotional paycheck being the fact that there is a lot of reasons why people stay in organizations and that the idea of things like recognition and purpose and strong relationships are a lot of those pieces that make a big difference when we're trying to actually figure out is this where I want to stay and is this. And is this an added piece to my overall salary, that I love my job and I love my paycheck or you know, those kinds of things are going to be helpful when you're trying to look at long term employee retention and organizational growth. So I hope that we see more conversations around culture Raw Annie Perks, well being washing emotional paychecks as we move into 2026. As I do think that this is going to be the point that we need to make sure we're on the same page. We're all talking. We're talking about things in a consistent way because these performative solutions that are out there are what is kind of causing this rot or this poisoning of our organizations. And we have to start putting a spotlight on it if we're actually going to resolve it. All right, so that about does it for us. For a full archive of the podcast and access the video version hosted on our YouTube channel, visit Roman.3c/ podcast. Thanks for joining us.
[ANNOUNCER]:For more information on topics like these, don't forget to Visit us at Roman3.ca. Side effects of this podcast may include improved retention, high productivity, increased market share, employees breaking out in spontaneous dance, dry mouth, aversion to the sound of James voice, desire to find a better podcast…
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