5. GENDER EQUALITY

Why The Death Of The Wells Fargo Employee Found At Work Is So Jarring

There’s a profound and collective sadness in the death of Denise Prudhomme, 60, who scanned into a Wells Fargo in Tempe, Arizona on Friday, August 16, and never scanned out. She died at her desk and wasn’t found until the following Tuesday. People dying at work from a safety breach or from stress still happens much too regularly. The immediate example of an extreme disregard for employee safety that springs to mind is the Foxconn suicides of assembly line workers in the company’s Longhua facility. But as far as we know, Prudhomme’s death didn’t fall into either of those categories.

What Prudhomme’s death at her desk triggered is a stark reminder that life is short, and raises the bigger question of whether we are wasting precious time working for large companies who, at the end of the day, don’t notice if an employee dies at their desk for four days. In a year filled with headlines of tech layoffs where huge corporations continue to put profit over people and corporate America wrestles with return-to-office mandates that employees are outright rejecting, Prudhomme’s death might be the event that pushes many to leave the rat race.

Middle-aged women in particular are leaving the workplace in increasing numbers. Nearly 33% of women in the U.K. expect to leave the workforce before retirement for reasons other than their own personal choice. One contributing factor is businesses are under equipped to meet the growing needs of older women in the workforce, and in particular, menopause. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that two-thirds of working women between the ages of 40 and 60 with menopausal symptoms said those systems have negatively impacted them at work. But a larger hypothesis is that there is a growing movement to redefine what it means to be ambitious and a desire to invest all the time and energy one gives to an employer into one’s own pursuits instead. There is a collective rejection of the notion that only one kind of career path and one kind of job offers stability. Attrition is a search for more autonomy and flexibility — for more control over our lives. More time to pursue passions and hobbies. People are tired and there is a desire to live a slower and more simple life that is at odds with the traditional structure of working for someone else.

Which brings us back to Prudhomme. Her experience highlights a stark truth: that we really are just a number to the place where we spend the majority of our waking hours. The harsh reality is that we are spending our time and energy in the wrong place for the wrong people. For many, Prudhomme’s death is a wake-up call to make changes while they still can. And that’s a special legacy to leave.

Wells Fargo has issued the following statement: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague, Denise Prudhomme. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones, and we are in contact to ensure they are well supported during this difficult time.”

Source: forbes.com

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Amanda

Hi there, I am Amanda and I work as an editor at impactinvesting.ai;  if you are interested in my services, please reach me at amanda.impactinvesting.ai