Unhappiness at Work is Harmful to Your Health

About ten years ago I was appointed CEO of a mid-size software company – one that had been the leader in its field for nearly twenty years but was now struggling. The Board’s assessment was that the company lacked innovation and a compelling product strategy. My first few weeks confirmed the Board’s view, but as I immersed myself in the organization it became clear that the root cause was not a lack of skills or ideas, but the lack of strong, trusting relationships. People were unhappy with each other, and their levels of energy and performance reflected that unhappiness. What made this situation particularly challenging was that many people knew they were in dysfunctional relationships, but they had no idea how to fix them.

Since then, I have asked hundreds of people about great days at work versus bad days at work. The pattern that emerged is illuminating. Good day conversations are almost always people-related, such as great teamwork or positive feedback from a leader or customer. Most bad-day conversations started with a ‘safe’ answer around things like poor processes or a lack of resources, but with a little prodding quickly revealed emotion-charged issues with managers and peers. Moreover, in every bad-day conversation, the person could easily describe how those issues affected both their performance and sense of well-being. Yet, when I asked, “have you talked about it?”, the answer is almost always, “No, we don’t talk about things like that.”

The lack of focus on the health of key relationships within organizations and teams is well documented. Too often, there is a gap between what positively impacts people’s performance and happiness at work, and what actually gets focused on by managers and team leaders. This gap provides the narrative for Gallup and other researchers who consistently report low levels of engagement, happiness, and well-being at work. The question is, what can be done?

The Surgeon General’s Warning (and Advice)

In a compelling HBR article, Work and the Loneliness Epidemic, Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 2014 to 2017, writes about the importance of strong, trusting relationships in the workplace. Pointing out that, from an evolutionary psychology and biology perspective, we are social creatures, Dr. Murthy emphasizes that people bring the most to their work when they feel connected to both purpose and people. He observes that the loneliness associated with relationship gaps and weak social connections reduces task performance, limits creativity, and impairs decision-making. Research by Gallup and LinkedIn’s Relationships @ Work study shows that strong social connections and healthy relationships at work increase engagement and well-being. Conversely, diminished connections and deteriorating relationships can be harmful to both mental and physical health. Dr. Murthy’s prescription for building healthy and productive relationships includes:

  • Measure the current state of key relationships
  • Build a shared understanding of the types of relationships you want at work and the norms you need to support them.
  • Make building strong relationships and connections a priority across the organization.

Strong Relationships, Performance, and Well-Being

There is a good reason why you don't send your family or friends an annual engagement survey. Share via Twitter
While many organizations recognize the importance of healthy relationships and connections at work, few have developed programs and processes to measure and develop them. Most continue to rely upon a periodic voice of the workforce or employee engagement survey, along with an occasional leadership training workshop. Those approaches are about as effective at work as they would be with a friend, spouse, or significant other. There is a good reason why you don’t send any of them an annual engagement survey. Checking on the state of important relationships once, or even a few times a year, is not only ineffective, it can lead to people feeling that the relationship is not very important.

Building healthy relationships requires understanding expectations, striving to meet them, and developing the habit of consistently closing the inevitable gaps. Contrary to the attitude that “it’s just work”, decades of research (and common sense) show us that developing strong, trusting relationships leads to greater happiness at work. Moreover, happiness matters not only in terms of team effectiveness and individual well-being, but it also impacts people’s families, friends, and broader communities. While team leaders cannot be held responsible for their people’s happiness, they should be directly accountable for ensuring the development of strong, trusting relationships among their team, with themselves, and with other teams across the organization.

 

Image credit: businessnewsdaily.com

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About the Author

Dr. Jeb Hurley is a leading expert on team dynamics and building high-performance hybrid / remote teams. He guides leaders in understanding and influencing human behavior and creating trust and psychological safety. Jeb’s innovative, behavioral science-based approach to leadership development improves team performance and people’s wellbeing faster and at a lower cost. Learn more about Jeb’s work at Brainware Partners.