I recently read a story about a woman who felt unsafe at work. She was being mistreated by a coworker who seemed to do it for no other reason than their enjoyment of seeing others squirm. It started with verbal jabs and elevated to subtle—and sometimes not so subtle—threats to have her fired. When she reported it to her boss, they told her, in so many words, to suck it up and get some thicker skin.
As the abuse continued, the complaint was delivered up the chain of command. At each stop, the manager in question would give her a patronizing “let me check into this” and then do essentially nothing.
The more this went on, the more the woman being abused got miserable and afraid. She was reaching her wit’s end and decided to go to HR, thinking they would be more sympathetic and helpful. When she talked with them about it, however, they told her they could not do anything unless there was hard evidence and witnesses who could corroborate the story.
Ultimately, our heroine turned in her notice and left. It seems this organization values the status quo more than the well-being of its employees.
Why do I share this? Who do you work for? No, not the company you work for. I mean, who—what people—do you do your work for? Who do you help? Is it customers, coworkers, or both? Is it your boss? Maybe you help suppliers by paying their bills on time. Maybe you help investors by providing all of the financial data they need. Maybe you never really interact much with people and have never seen what you do as being for anyone, but on reflection, you realize it is—because our work is always for someone.
And that is my point. Everything about the work we do is for and about people. Our abused woman worked in a place that had lost sight of that. I shudder at the thought of how that company treats customers.
Everyone who works does their work for others. Everything we do is a service to someone. Executives are of service (or should be) to managers who are of service (or should be) to employees who are of service (or should be) to customers. Administrative staff are of service (or should be) to suppliers, investors, and/or all levels and types of internal team members.
So, here’s the point: It’s ALL about people. All of the work we do is to help people in one way, shape, or form. Being great at that will make you and your organization great. Period.
Years ago, a US Army general named Melvin Zais ended an address he was delivering with these words of wisdom: “The one piece of advice which will contribute to making you a better leader … is this: You must care.”
If you want to be an effective leader or team member, YOU MUST CARE … about people. Why? Because, at the end of the day, that’s all there is.
==> If you want to know when new posts are published, CLICK HERE to subscribe.
Neal Woodson 
Neal, this really resonated with me, particularly the idea that every system eventually reveals what it truly values by how it treats people when they become inconvenient. What struck me most was not simply the abusive coworker, but the cascading failure afterward — the supervisor minimized it, leadership deferred it, and HR proceduralized it. That’s not just a culture problem; it’s a systems problem.
In my CX work, I’ve long believed organizations cannot consistently deliver compassionate customer experiences externally while tolerating fear, dismissal, or emotional neglect internally. Employees eventually mirror the environment they themselves experience.
Your line that “everything we do is a service to someone” especially landed with me. Once organizations lose sight of that, people become abstractions instead of human beings.
And your closing point — “You must care” — says more in four words than many leadership books manage in 300 pages.