What does generosity mean as a company value?

Spending your own time on somebody else’s problem without expecting it back. At work the currency is hours rather than money, which makes it invisible in a way that a donation would not be.

How do you recognise generosity at work?

Count the instances. A pattern named with a number is much harder to wave off than a compliment, and most people doing this have no idea it adds up to anything.

Why does generosity go unrewarded?

Because it lands outside the giver’s own objectives by definition. It helps somebody else’s project, another team’s launch or a colleague’s week, and none of those appear in the giver’s review.

What happens when generous people are never recognised?

They keep going for a long time and then stop suddenly. The failure mode is not gradual decline; it is a resignation that looks unprovoked to everyone who was benefiting from it.

Company values

Generosity

Generosity at work is measured in hours somebody did not have, which is why the people doing most of it are the least likely to mention it.

The currency is hours

Nobody at work is generous with money. They are generous with the two hours on a Friday they were going to spend on their own work, and with the slower route that leaves a colleague able to do something themselves next time.

None of that appears anywhere. It helps somebody else’s project, which means it helps nobody’s review.

The failure mode is sudden

Generosity that goes unacknowledged does not gradually taper.

The same three people carry it for a year or two, and then one of them resigns in a way that looks unprovoked to everybody who was quietly benefiting.

How you would know

Gives time before being asked: Offers help on noticing, rather than waiting for a request that most people will not make.
Shares credit outward: Names contributors who would otherwise disappear into a team-level thank-you.
Takes the awkward slot: Absorbs the early call, the on-call shift over Christmas and whichever rotation nobody wants.
Teaches rather than does: Chooses the slower route that leaves somebody else able to do it next time.

6 messages that name it

You have covered on-call for other people eleven times this year. I only know because I counted.
Manager
The count is the message.
Thank you for saying it was Nour’s idea in front of the exec team. She would not have.
Peer
Credit passed on at the sender’s expense.
You take the 7am call every week so the rest of us do not have to. It is noticed.
Peer
Names a recurring, quiet cost.
Thanks for showing me rather than doing it for me. That was slower for you and I can do it now.
Peer
The recipient states the trade explicitly.
Elena spent two hours on somebody else’s bug on a Friday because they were stuck and she was not.
Manager
Time, day and reason, all specific.
You gave your best week to another team’s launch during your own tight quarter. I have not forgotten.
Manager
Recognises a cost paid in another team’s currency.

What its absence looks like

Where generosity is unrecognised, it does not stop being given. It gets given by the same three people until they are exhausted, and then it stops all at once.

Recognising it well

Count it. “Eleven times this year” makes a pattern visible in a way that no adjective does.
Recognise passed-on credit. Somebody who names another person’s contribution has given away something scarce.
Check who is always the giver. Unacknowledged generosity does not taper off gradually; it ends abruptly and usually with a resignation.

Questions people ask

What does generosity mean as a company value?: Spending your own time on somebody else’s problem without expecting it back. At work the currency is hours rather than money, which makes it invisible in a way that a donation would not be.
How do you recognise generosity at work?: Count the instances. A pattern named with a number is much harder to wave off than a compliment, and most people doing this have no idea it adds up to anything.
Why does generosity go unrewarded?: Because it lands outside the giver’s own objectives by definition. It helps somebody else’s project, another team’s launch or a colleague’s week, and none of those appear in the giver’s review.
What happens when generous people are never recognised?: They keep going for a long time and then stop suddenly. The failure mode is not gradual decline; it is a resignation that looks unprovoked to everyone who was benefiting from it.