The workplace is a network of ecosystems where the success and well-being of a manager and employee A [+]
April is Stress Awareness Month. This month is a time for companies to think about how they support employee well-being and prioritize creating a stress-free and well-being work culture. The business that wins against its employees destroys itself. The comment was taken from a famous quote from anthropologist and sociologist Gregory Bateson who said, “An animal that wins against its environment destroys itself.” Think about it. Batson was pointing out that all things are interrelated. If we continue to destroy the environment in search of more fossil fuels, more industrial growth and more use of consumer goods, we will destroy ourselves. Our well-being is inextricably linked, and this perspective is now being applied as an interdependent ecosystem of consideration and offers in the workplace. The capabilities of the organizational ecosystem become a set of advantages. You can’t have a top without a bottom, a back without a left or a back without a front. It follows that the well-being and success of the company and the well-being and success of the employees are inextricably linked.
The manager’s hesitation state
Since the workplace exists, Corporate America has established a top-to-bottom win-lose culture between itself and its employees. It’s like fighting the fire department if your building catches fire. It doesn’t work. Workers cannot be healthy if the workplace and the manager are unhealthy. This approach is supported by extensive research which shows that toxic, unsupported workplaces undermine the bottom line of the company. On the other hand, in healthy workplaces যেখানে where companies use a win-win approach and treat employees with respect and empathy থাকে there are happier and more productive employees who run business profits. It’s a simple and obvious idea, yet many agencies and managers continue to fight the fire department.
With the rise of burnouts, “The Great Regeneration,” the challenge of long-term work, blurring career boundaries, and the growing challenge to mental health, managers around the world are struggling to determine how to better support their employees. “To make matters worse, they seem to be failing,” said Steve Glaser, co-founder and CEO of Comfortzones Digital, an innovative organization that helps companies and employees cope with work stress. “Studies have shown that 57% of turnover is driven by employee dissatisfaction with their managers.”
Comfortzones Digital CEO Steve Glaser and his team have identified innovative ways. A [+]
Obviously, many managers are not adequately trained and ill-equipped to handle these challenges, according to Glaser. They are promoted for their technical or operational skills, not their management skills, he adds. And they themselves are under significant levels of stress, often limited to dealing with employee personal and health issues. “At ComfortZones Digital, we have identified and evaluated more than 60 of the most common stress situations found in most workplaces,” Glaser said. “These stressors are the main cause of burnout, turnover, lack of engagement and many mental and physical health problems created in the workplace.”
How managers can take care of their employees
At Comfortzones Digital, Glaser and his team are adopting a different approach to work stress management, including “a digital companion for each stressful situation.” While supporting workers on demand is the foundation of problem prevention in the workplace, it cannot stand alone. “We need to help our employees actively cope with the environment in which they work, as well as help improve that environment. Managers are a lynching pin for improving the workplace environment,” according to Glaser.
The team has added a number of points to provide a simple and effective guide for “caring” managers to contain and / or reduce their employee workload. “Our approach includes ‘pairs’ of human-related elements with work elements that often do not develop together and often conflict,” Glaser explained. “It simply came to our notice then. In contrast, these ‘pairs’ of human and work elements by managers and their employees have the potential to reduce many common workplace stressors. ”
1. Pair recognition of the person paired with the recognition of the employee. When you show recognition and gratitude to your employees for their efforts, it builds strong support, motivation and empowerment in them and makes them feel valued. You can add human recognition to work, recognize employees as they are, and communicate perceptions for certain behaviors — such as their honesty or optimism. Your activity opens up possibilities for manager-employee bonds that create a new level of human-centered trust, psychological security and loyalty to the company.
2. Add life priorities and boundaries to work priorities and boundaries. When you sit down with employees to define work priorities and boundaries or boundaries, it gives them clarity and reduces stress that comes with not knowing what to expect or how to trade off. If, at the same time, those work priorities are considered along with the employee’s life priorities and work-life boundaries, it enables work-to-human tradeoffs that cannot normally be done. This alignment helps to avoid future career conflicts. Priorities of work that violate the boundaries of work-life cannot be completely avoided. But the goodwill associated with this initiative – including some advanced level alignment between life and work – goes a long way in reducing employee stress and opening up important means of communication.
3. Combine the purpose of life with the purpose of work. Employees are more motivated when you lead with an employee role and a specific purpose of the company. Also, it gives employees a guiding light to make better decisions. If you actively seek and support personal goals in an employee’s life, it opens up new possibilities for work-human alignment. It can also help personalize how they draw their own unique meaning from work and influence how they create roles, career opportunities and other meaningful activities. This pairing has the potential to build tremendous goodwill and increase loyalty to both you and the company.
4. Add personal flexibility to work autonomy. When you allow employees autonomy, you send a message that you respect and trust them to do their best. The more you speak in favor of autonomy, the more employees will feel the control of their work and the more they will show ownership and accountability. There is a great opportunity to actively combine the discussion of autonomy with the discussion of personal flexibility. This can include an employee’s unique personal circumstances and conflicts and their own unique preferences considering how they work and where they work from. This pairing can reduce conflict and stress and allow employees to be at their best. Another benefit is that employee appreciation for you and the company is not just for a worker, but for supporting them as a whole.
5. Add values to life with values at work. When you demonstrate strong workplace values - such as transparency, accountability and fairness – you create a healthy and safe environment for most employees. It’s a great opportunity to understand employees’ personal values - such as consistency, honesty and generosity – and align those values with their specific work. It can further reduce or eliminate stressful situations and conflicts that would otherwise have a profound effect on them. It is not uncommon for managers to underestimate the individuality of each individual and the sensitivities of each employee. But taking an active role in pairing and aligning both personal and work quality goes a long way in creating a strongly employed and loyal workforce.
One final word
Once you actively manage these five work-to-people pairs, you will have better connections with your employees, reduce conflict, create emotional security, and reduce stress. Also, you’ll be in a better position to help alleviate many of the root causes of their work stress that perpetuate turnover, burnout, reduced engagement, and mental and physical health issues such as:
Conflict with managers is unrealistic deadlines
Lack of recognition Lack of control
Inadequate work-life balance distorted values
Work overload vague role
