Happiness at Work…it’s on us, ALL of us, to be the change we want to see happen.

Dear Executives, leaders, employees, EVERYONE,

?Over the last 18 months, how many of us have confided with friends and/or family that we may not be fulfilled at our job? My guess is most of us have confronted this inconvenient reality at least once since the beginning of COVID, if not sooner. I know I have. And we’re not alone. There is report by McKinsey, “The Great Attrition or Great Attraction,” that’s gone viral in recent weeks that details the more than 15 million US workers who have quit their jobs since April 2021.?And we are seeing the same alarming rates globally.??The report calls on business leaders to resist the urge to lean on quick, transactional fixes (such as increasing pay or financial perks) and instead dig deep to understand that employees are craving more than financial investment; they are craving relationships, belonging, and meaning. I love this report for so many reasons, mainly because it puts into words, statistics, and charts what so many of us have been feeling for so long—we need more than just a paycheck. For years, we’ve told ourselves, “I need this job to pay the bills and provide for my family.” And, while this is true, I see examples everywhere of how we are evolving and yearning for more.

?While I wholeheartedly agree with the findings in McKinsey’s research, there is one part I have been really contemplating…McKinsey states that the responsibility for bringing more humanity to our workplace rests primarily on business leaders. I am not sure I agree.?In my knowing, we ALL play a part.?We are ALL responsible for creating the change we want to see—from office employees to frontline employees from early talent to the C-suite. While title and pay grade may make a difference in many parts of life—belonging, relationships, and meaning are universal human needs. And unfortunately, it is also a universal experience all the way up and down the corporate ladder to feel as though we need to pretend to be something we’re not, sacrifice our humanity for our jobs, and do work that we may not feel intrinsically connected to. If we put the responsibility on leaders and leaders alone, we run the risk of not seeing ourselves as part of the problem. And we ARE part of the problem. Even if it’s simply by looking the other way or not showing up as our authentic selves, each of us has contributed to the workplace culture we have today—so we need to contribute to the solution. And if we want a workplace that embraces more of our humanity, then more of us need to take accountability to increase human connection at work.?

?Every day, I see employees, managers, leaders, and executives alike react unconsciously to situations from a place of fear, control, and ego rather than from empathy, humility, and connection. In doing so, we hide important parts of ourselves to fit in or play a part. It’s exhausting us on so many levels. Recently, I’ve been sharing about our gremlins and our masks and how they are preventing us from realizing our full potential as individuals and as a collective community. Gremlins are the voices that are often left over from when we made a mistake in childhood or early in our careers and experienced a break in belonging; they intend to keep us safe, prevent us from making mistakes, and protect us from looking stupid—but they end up holding us back from trying new things. And our masks are often the result of the gremlins—the inauthentic persona we adopt at work to fit in, be a “good” worker, and get ahead. The gremlins and masks have been a part of our global workplace for over half a century, if not longer. We got so used to listening to our gremlins and wearing our masks that we almost forgot they were there.

Then COVID happened, and our personal lives and work lives integrated, in a nanosecond. COVID has changed us in many ways, but to me, its greatest impact is in how it is inviting many of us to reflect and truly see the reality of our situation that we were previously too distracted or enmeshed to see. Before, some of us were blissfully unaware of how we really felt about our work, our relationships, and our lives because we were so consumed with trying to survive the demands of our busy routines. Then COVID switched up that routine and forced us to see some of it for what it is—a sometimes check-the-box, collect-the-paycheck, pretending-to-be-someone-we’re-not exercise with less meaning than we previously thought.

?Might it be possible that COVID is an opportunity for us to shape our evolving workplace to become a place we want to go to, not just have to go to? How can we be accountable to creating work as a place where we feel safe to be ourselves…a place where we can pursue our purpose …and a place where we can honor every dimension of ourselves—from the physical and intellectual to the emotional and spiritual? Maybe this is a moment, an opportunity to bridge who we are at work with who we are at home, and FINALLY feel more connected to ourselves and each other?

?So, how do we begin? Where should we start? In short, we take baby steps EVERYWHERE. That’s right. Not just in the C-suite, or at the leadership retreat, or the HR conference room, or the team Zoom meeting, or the shop floor, or the casual conversations in hallways. We ALL do our part to create the change we want to see in the world by making small changes every day. These changes could be as big as updating policies and compensation systems or as small as simply choosing to connect with a colleague with more empathy and compassion. Every change will matter. If we all commit to doing one thing every day to bring more humanity to our workplace, we can create a new reality – one that inspires us to be our best at work and in our personal lives. Imagine what that might look like for yourself.

?In the next few posts, I’m going to share some ideas for how we can make large and small changes to create a work environment that embraces our full selves. In the meantime, I’d like to hear from you. What one small change will you make to create a more connected and human workplace?