Engaged and Exhausted; How to Save $1M; Teacher Turnover; Time Does Not Equal Money
Welcome back to the digest for wellbeing advocates in HR, management, safety, and IO psychology. For in-depth analysis, multimedia, workers' voice, and community, subscribe to the original Heigh Ho — Work, Workplaces, and Wellbeing . While there, say "hi" to Heigh Ho-bot??, which uses AI to answer your questions about work and wellbeing.
Off we go...
? Teams minus Collaboration equals Disengagement?
Writing on behalf of Gallup , Ben Wigert, Ph.D, MBA , Jim Harter , and Sangeeta Agrawal report:
"Hybrid workers are most engaged when their team works together to determine their hybrid schedules. Unfortunately, this is the least common approach to designing hybrid work schedules."
See Gallup's latest advice, based on its extensive data on hybrid work:
?? Engaged and Exhausted
Speaking of engagement: We've come to believe job engagement goes hand-in-hand with wellbeing. Now, Future of Work Institute 's Sharon Parker , Mark Griffin , Karina Jorritsma , and Belinda Cham report — in their paper, Thriving Sustainably: Navigating the Complex Landscape of Workplace Mental Health — 77% of Australian workers surveyed had high levels of "thriving." One-third of thriving workers, however, were "engaged and exhausted." Wellbeing is complex, the authors explain — mental health and mental ill-health can co-exist. Might this also call for a second look at whether engagement is the universal win-win it's made out to be?
?? ?? ?? Labor Department Issues Timely Clarification on Religion Discrimination
One week before the onset of the current Mideast war, the US Department of Labor published its first-ever written clarification of laws protecting workers from antisemitic, Islamophobic, and other forms of religious discrimination in federally funded activities.
The fact-sheet isn't exactly a barn burner, but HR professionals, managers, and workers potentially exposed to discrimination will benefit from its scenarios that could "raise concerns."
?? How to Save $1 Million
Three ideas for fast food operators looking to save $1 million: 1) Don't steal workers' tips 2) Don't bounce paychecks 3) Don't schedule kids as young as 14 to work late at night (especially on the slicer). For these revelations, we thank 14 California Subway operators who did the opposite and were fined nearly one million dollars.
Also, see the Heigh Ho article, Snow White-washing Child Labor :
领英推荐
?? If You Can't Stand the Heat... at Work
OSHA has yet to enact an official heat standard, but it published an updated fact sheet on how to protect workers from the effects of soaring temperatures.
Also, see the Heigh Ho article The Future of Work Is on Fire :
?? Teachers Line Up and Head Calmly to The Nearest Exit
Teachers in some states are leaving their jobs in droves. A RAND survey found low salary and long working hours impair teachers' wellbeing and are their top reasons for exiting the profession. But, writing for RAND, Elizabeth Steiner , Ashley Woo , and Sy Doan conclude, "Pay increases alone — without improvements in teachers’ working hours or conditions — are unlikely to induce large shifts in teachers’ well-being or intentions to leave."
??Work Is a Social Determinant of Health
In the future of work, six factors will influence health inequity, according to a new series published in The Lancet : remote work; migrant work; intersectional inequities based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, and social class; precarious employment (e.g. tech-enabled gig work); long/irregular work hours; and climate change.
Improving the work environment, The Lancet series argues, could substantially bolster population health and reduce health inequities. But progress will require collaborative organizational and societal interventions, rooted in recognition of work as a social determinant of health.
[This aligns with what I wrote in April 2020 (article, below), "The future of work will be about the experience of a workforce that instantaneously became more dispersed than ever; widening social class disparities within the workforce; the newly defined meaning of work; and understanding and mitigating the risks of precarious work."]
? No, Time Isn't Money
In Beyond the Paycheck , Julian Barling — an icon of scholarship on employee wellbeing, leadership, and management — and Haskayne School of Business 's Nick Turner, write:
The keys to a workplace that fosters productivity, health and safety are: high-quality leadership, job autonomy, feelings of belonging and fairness, opportunities for growth, meaningful work and psychologically and physically safe work. However, this doesn’t mean organizations should underpay their employees. ...They should aim to compensate above industry standards.
In a forthcoming Heigh Ho article, I'll challenge the perplexing trend of benchmarking good leadership against fair pay for workers. In the interim, professor Barling's and Turner's article — which veers from this trend — remains essential reading for anyone interested in productive compensation structure, good work, and employee wellbeing.
That's it for now. Remember to: