Dare to Be Yourself at Work

Dare to Be Yourself is the title of a book written by Alan Cohen. It could also be the mantra of those of us seeking to find satisfaction in our lives through our work.

 

The one place that we might find it difficult to “be ourselves” is in the workplace. This is really too bad as we spend a good part of our lives there.  I read somewhere that each year the average North American spends 2000 hours at work. YIKES!!!

There is definately a connection between healthy workplaces and job satisfaction.

Here is a list of 10 things that contribute to job satisfaction:

1. Achievement: Success is important in life and we all need to be recognized for our accomplishments.  
2. Adventure: It may not be that easy to find adventure in a bank so you may have to pick and choose where you work.
3. Altruism: Giving back to others. The dictionary defines altruism as “unselfishly giving back to others”. These days, progressive organizations provide workers with opportunities to contribute to their communities.
4. Autonomy:  Who doesn’t want control over their work?
5. Challenge: Without challenge we would be bored. At least I would be. Challenge can be found in work that is difficult, complex, and leads to a sense of mastery and achievement.
6. Colleagues: Some people prefer to work on their own. The rest of us need contact with fellow human beings.  
7. Creativity: Being creative at work can lead to innovation which is good for the bottom line. Perhaps more importantly, the ability to be creative at work enables us to use our talents and gifts. 
8. Economic Returns: Being paid WELL for our contribution to the organization’s success. Beside this is what keeps the world’s economy going. Right?
9. Growth: We are no different than other living organisms. We must continue to grow and thrive. We grow in many ways: intellectually, emotionally, psychologically, physically and spiritually. A healthy organization recognizes this fact. Here’s what Edgar Schein has to say about unhealthy organizations, “There can be little growth and development for employees at any level in a sick and stagnant organization. It is in the best interests of both the individual and the organization to have a healthy organization that can provide opportunities for growth.”
10. Spirituality: The word spirit derives from the Latin word spiritus meaning “to breathe, to give life”. Inspire means to breathe in. Without spirit in our organizations there is no life! Our spiritual self asks, Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? It is important to recognize this aspect of ourselves and to be able to express it at work.

Of course this list doesn’t cover everything. What’s on your list?

Workplace First Aid Needed in Canada

I was listening to the radio today and was pleased to learn that Angus Reid  just released ANOTHER poll on what we Canadians have been up to in our places of employment. 

Unfortunately the news is not good! In fact, these unhealthy work environments are hurting our economy to the tune of 30 BILLION dollars a year.  The results come from an on-line survey of a “representative national sample”. Here’s a few of the findings:

• More than half of the respondents are fed up with incompetent managers and negative co-workers.
• More than 2-in-5 are annoyed by hypocrisy, co-workers who whine, poor office communication, gossip, and having to attend meetings that are unproductive!

Happy Reading!

Is Your Workplace Producing Employee Stress?

I keep hearing about the acute shortage of workers in all sectors of the economy AND the looming crisis that is sure to strike as more and more baby boomers retire. Of course many of these boomers will continue to work or will start their own businesses. 

Those who do seek re-employment will certainly NOT tolerate unhealthy, stress-inducing workplaces. 

Young people are also picking and choosing where they work and most of them have even less tolerance than older workers when it comes to working in stressful, unhealthy workplaces.

I believe that one of the reasons that people are fleeing the workplace or are reluctant to enter in the first place is summed up in two words–workplace stress. 

Workplace stress is a so predominant in North American organizations that a huge multi-million (maybe even billion) dollar industry has sprung up to lend a hand. I’m not sure if it’s having the desired effect but a lot of people are getting rich. But I digress…

We have all experienced workplace stress or know of someone who has.  What is frightening is not only the toll that this stress takes on the lives of workers and their families BUT also the cost of all of this to our society.  And guess who’s paying for this?

As an aside, when I talk about workers in this blog I mean EVERYONE who works in the organization: non-contract and unionized workers, managers and line staff. EVERYONE is affected. 

In the not so distant past workplace stress was thought to be the individual’s concern. If you were stressed at work then you had better deal with it. 

Your employer might send you to the occupational health nurse or to the employee assistance program. If you were really lucky you worked in a place that had a wellness program complete with a gym, wellness coaching and education.

According to Martin Shain, “these health promotion and wellness programs have demonstrated their value in helping manage stress.” He continues, “however, health promotion and wellness programs that focus only on changing employee behaviours or that place full responsibility for stress management solely with employees, are not enough.

There is now a growing body of solid research clearly indicating that some characteristics of how the workplace is organized is also critical…some workplaces are actually producing employee stress just as surely as they are producing widgets.”

Here are some examples of what Mr. Shain is talking about:

• work overload and time pressure
• lack of influence over day-to-day work
• lack of training and/or preparation
• too little or too much responsibility
• ambiguity in job responsibility
• discrimination
• harassment
• poor communication
• poor leadership/management

In the past fifteen years the thinking about the causes of stress in the workplace have slowly started to change. This change in thinking is being spearheaded by visionary people like Martin Shain in Ontario and in British Columbia, Virginia Langdon  , Executive Director of the Workplace Council, and Marcy Cohen, Research/Policy Planner with the Hospital Employees Union (HEU). 

We now know that stress is not solely the individual’s problem and if the organization focuses only on  individual wellness without creating a healthy workplace then things will not change. In fact things will only get worse.

What can be done about this? There are lots of different approaches to creating healthy workplaces.  The National Quality Institute and Health Canada have come up with The Healthy Workplace Criteria which is designed to help organizations work with employees to create healthy workplaces.

What’s happening at your workplace?  

Why Do Our Workplaces Need Healing?

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am writing this blog to create a dialogue on the 21st century workplace. What’s happening out there in the world of work? I hear a lot about unhealthy workplaces. What can we do to make them healthy?  I know that there are many GREAT places to work in this world and I would love to hear from those of you blessed enough to work in one of these organizations.

      

My hunch is that small or medium business/organizations (SMB) find it easier to create work environments that engage people and nurture their souls. You only have to look at the list of the TOP 50 GREATPLACES to WORK in Canada to see that most of them are SMBs.

Few large organizations are able to provide this kind of workplace (more about this later). So, what am I talking about here??? Healthy workplaces that nurture people’s souls are workplaces with the following charateristics:

• great leadership (more, much more, about this later)
• shared leadership
• teamwork
• values such as respect, integrity, learning, community, creativity, caring are the norm
• learning is valued and supported
• communication

I am aware that within many large organizations there are individual departments or teams that are able to create something unique but this often depends on a number of variables–most often it depends on who the leader is and who the leader has on his or her team.

What I will refer to as “progressive leaders” are those rare (did I say that?) individuals who have done their own developmental work and are open to learning. By developmental work I mean tuning inward and reflecting on their strengths, weaknesses, values, beliefs, etc. These “rare” leaders make great bosses because they understand their own needs and the needs of the people they are leading. AND they don’t let their EGOS get in the way.

Some of you will know right away what this is all about…having worked, or are currently working (my sympathy) in a “toxic” or unhealthy workplace. But some of you…may not have had the pleasure of working in this kind of environment and are wondering “what is she talking about”? Good question. What exactly is an unhealthy workplace and more importantly perhaps, can anything be done to make a sick workplace healthy again? That’s the challenge.

We know that people can be unhealthy, trees can be unhealthy and even our pets can be unhealthy, but these are all living, breathing, entities. A workplace is a different kettle of fish…to mix a metaphor.

But a workplace, while not alive in the same sense, is a dynamic, changing, entity that can be either healthy or unhealthy for the people who work in it.  I should know…I’ve worked in both.

According to psychotherapist, Jean McLendon, “all human systems have personalities, developmental life stages, relationships, resources, characters, values and means of self-perpetution.”  Jean is referring to organizations as human systems.

Well, that’s it for this post. Check back later in the week…Lesley