SWE is yet another corporate acronym that stands for “Satisfying Work Experience.” Your manager can’t just ask you “how do you like your job?” Instead, they have to ask you “How is your SWE?” (pronounced like “swee,” as if it were actually a real word).
At my first job, we had all been working ridiculous hours and weekends (as per usual), and one of the managers took a few members of my team into a conference room and asks us:
“You guys have all been working really hard. What can I do to improve your SWE?”
At this point, my friend and coworker looks at the manager and asks, “can I leave at 5 today and not work this weekend?”
For a moment, we all had a brief glimmer of hope. And then our manager replied:
“No, but since everybody is so stressed out, you guys can all wear funny hats tomorrow!” And she seemed so proud of herself for coming up with such a brilliant and clever idea.
Upon hearing that response, my friend got up and left. She walked right out of the conference room without saying a word. I don’t know where she went. I don’t even think I saw her for the rest of that week, and she certainly didn’t come in and work that weekend. I remember she was back the following Monday, however, but no one ever spoke of the incident again.
My friend is awesome, and helped inspire me to not put up with bullshit at work. I hope this article inspires you in the same way.
How about “you can wear jeans to the office tomorrow”, “we can order pizza and have EXTRA cheese”, “you have worked 30 extra hours this week, you can come in at 9 tomorrow instead of 8am!!!”