Re-defining Nonprofit Work Culture In The World Of 24/7 Communication

Every day we talk with nonprofit staff and across the board, every single person is “swamped”, “completely fried”, “wearing too many hats”, “just not able to keep up.” And all over the internet, tips on time management, tools to cope with constant communication, and thousands of other suggestions proliferate for people to take control and draw better boundaries between work and you know, life.

These ideas are often useful and well intentioned. But at the core they all recommend an individual changing her/his behavior to adjust to today’s 24/7 workflow. Even while many nonprofit staff have adopted such suggestions and tools, they’re still, in a word, overwhelmed. And at the same time, salaries aren’t rising for the vast majority of nonprofit workers.

So where is the sector heading? Will it be dominated by Gen Y / millenials who have the energy and time to work around the clock – till they start a family? Will staff attrition be the name of the game? Or will we simply keep doing more but at a disservice to quality?

I believe that there’s a different way: nonprofits and associations of nonprofits need to change the culture of nonprofit work.

The world has changed and corporations and businesses with global operations and immense budgets have set the default for what work culture should be. Nonprofits are simply following this lead. How about instead of trying to force the shoe to fit, we walk barefoot?

Here’s how it could be done:

1)    Re-define your work culture. Leaders, ask yourself and your staff: what would make me – as a human being who works – happy and fulfilled? What do I need in my workplace to get the best work done and still have time and space for personal fulfillment. Then, define your work culture around the premise of meeting the twin goals of doing great work and worker satisfaction in and outside work.

2)    Throw out all existing policies around comp time, flextime, vacation time, etc. Really. The policies aren’t in and of themselves “bad”, but none of them were necessarily invented with the reality of nonprofit work in mind. Look at your staffing, budgets, and needs and honestly think about whether your organization needs people to work 24/7 or even 7-11? Where can you cut extra work time or bring on support staff? What will you lose? What will you gain? Craft new guidelines/policies, keeping in view what your organization and the people who make it, really need.

3)    Be transparent. Responsibly and transparently communicate your work culture so you can set and manage expectations both internally and externally. If you work with foundations, you already know what this looks like — they’re often very clear about their grant-making timelines and processes. If you work with government, you may have more of a challenge and your organization will have to be flexible. But people and organizations (even government entities!) will get used to your norms… eventually. Especially if nonprofit organizations band together to push for change across the sector.

Let’s be clear. None of this is easy or perhaps even right for your organization. But unless the nonprofit sector takes control and re-defines a new work culture for itself, it might end up exactly where it wants not to be: burned-out or left behind.