Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1477447
Ask them, "Did you feel stress yesterday?" — 59% will say "yes." Ask them, "Did you feel worried yesterday?" — 56% will say "yes." Ask them, "Did you feel physical pain a lot of the day yesterday?" — 33% will say "yes." And, "How about anger?" — 31% will say "yes." These figures are staggering — and 46% to 83% higher than an engaged person would report. A Better Way? The pain from work has caused leaders to invent new ways to get as far from work as possible. Movements to attain "work-life balance," implement four-day workweeks and expand remote work are now everywhere. But it's not just the hours, imbalance or location that leave workers unhappy. It's what's happening at work that makes them miserable. For example, balance is essential, but it implies a work/life separation. Emotionally compartmentalizing work, or anything in life, is hard. Even if your boss can't call or email you after 5 p.m., you probably haven't recovered from the berating he gave you earlier in the day. It's almost impossible to leave that kind of emotional baggage at work. In a Gallup study in Germany, 51% of actively disengaged workers said job stress caused them to behave poorly with loved ones. 4 So, what makes a bad job? In one of the largest studies of burnout, Gallup found the biggest source was "unfair treatment at work." That was followed by an unmanageable workload, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support and unreasonable time pressure. Those five causes have one thing in common: your boss. Get a bad one and you are almost guaranteed to hate your job. A bad boss will ignore you, disrespect you and never support you. Environments like that can make anyone miserable. A manager's effect on a workplace is so significant that Gallup can predict 70% of the variance in team engagement just by getting to know the boss. Thriving at Work Improving life at work isn't rocket science, but the world is closer to colonizing Mars than it is to fixing the world's broken workplaces. Stakeholder capitalists think they have the solution. Using environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics, they encourage companies to report on their impact on everything from the environment to their workforce. But when it comes to the worker, most ESG reports focus solely on pay and demographics. These are critical, but how do we know if workers are being treated with respect? Or feel cared about? The real fix is this simple: better leaders in the workplace. Managers need to be better listeners, coaches and collaborators. Great managers help colleagues learn and grow, recognize their colleagues for doing great work, and make them truly feel cared about. In environments like this, workers thrive. 4 "Bringing Work Problems Home" by Steve Crabtree, https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/1078/bringing-work-problems-home.aspx Copyright © 2022 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. SOGW_Letter_2022 3 State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report From the CEO