One-size-fits-all COVID management advice doesn’t help a single soul

Here’s a thing whereby Harvard Business Review readers reflect on 2021, and while there’s the normal amount of bullshit in any business journalism article, there are actually a few interesting lessons contained herein. The biggest overall lesson, at least to me, is that we tend to offer a lot of one-size-fits-all management advice around COVID, and none of that is going to help anyone out, because every manager you encounter, and every culture you encounter, is inherently different. Let’s walk through a couple of examples.

“We care about people now”

This has been the central business journalism narrative about COVID and management, even though if you literally look at the actions of any mid-sized to large company, you know it’s complete trash and companies probably cared less about people, and in a more overt way, than at any time since the 2008 recession. Remember March and April 2020? It was Layoff Armageddon, at a time when people were trapped inside and the supply chain was shot to shit.

Look at this, from Carrie via HBR:

The most important thing I learned is that we need to see employees as people first. When addressing issues or concerns, it’s not a number walking into our office, it’s a person, with a life outside that…