Data from 57,000 employees shows they're at their unhappiest since the pandemic.
https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/3-things-keeping-your-employees-awake-at-night-according-to-wharton-psychologist-adam-grant.html
Employees are unhappier now than any time since the height of the pandemic three years ago, according to newly released research from BambooHR. What exactly is making them so miserable?
Although BambooHR did not collect information on why that is, Adam Grant thinks he knows the reason. The Wharton organizational psychologist and New York Times bestselling author has spent years studying the workplace and the emotions contained within it. He believes that three things play a particularly big role in employee unhappiness.
1. Emotional exhaustion from "permacrisis."
Grant popularized the term "languishing" a few years ago to describe a general feeling of apathy and unease that many people seemed to be feeling. "It's the sense that you are not at peak capacity, that you are missing motivation and meaning but you're not depressed because you still have hope and you're not burned out because you still have some energy," he told CNBC.com. What seems like a nonstop series of wars, climate-related natural disasters, and social unrest over the past few years--a "permacrisis"--have left many feeling wrung out, including at least some of your employees.
That feeling can lead to quiet quitting, in which employees fulfill the minimum requirements of their jobs, but feel little motivation or engagement. This is one reason Grant recommends conducting periodic stay interviews--asking employees how they feel about their jobs and what they hope to accomplish at your company. Exit interviews are useful too, of course, but with a stay interview, you may be able to resolve a problem before it leads an employee to quit, or quietly quit.
2. Coping with a toxic workplace.
Burnout is on the rise, research shows, and Grant says that toxic workplace culture is one big reason why. To fight it, he has recommended looking for ways to reduce the most onerous parts of employees' work; giving employees as much autonomy as possible; and creating a culture where people feel safe asking for help or admitting that they are struggling. And the quickest way to do that, he adds, is for you as a leader to be open about your own struggles.
Grant told CNBC.com that one of the best ways to fight burnout that he knows comes from a manager who told employees, "it's OK to call in sick, and it's OK to call in sad."
And, he added, "we have evidence going back decades that managers who care about their employees end up with more motivated people that are more likely to stay and do better work."
3. Disruption due to A.I.
There's no question that, over the next few years, artificial intelligence will change the way most people do their jobs. In the near term, employees may be concerned over being replaced by A.I.--or they may simply feel daunted at the idea of needing to cope with this new and powerful technology that has the potential to increase their productivity, but also the potential to hallucinate.
Grant says he's seen about a dozen studies that show A.I. can help writers, programmers, and salespeople do their jobs more effectively, much as search engines improved the performance of millions of salespeople years ago because it gave them a much better way to find prospective customers.
He also believes A.I. represents an unprecedented opportunity to lessen the workload on humans and perhaps even move toward a four-day work week. After all, he asks, couldn't employees "work maybe 10 percent less if they are 20-30 percent more productive with A.I.?"
Many employees fear that deploying A.I. will just become an excuse to add to their already heavy workloads. Allowing it lessen that workload--and showing that you care about the humans in your employ--could be a much smarter move.