Wellbeing and work: The flow way.

The word "wellbeing" is increasingly popular in workplace conversations. In the last couple of years, it has become prominent in job titles. Chief Wellbeing Officers and Wellbeing Officers work to help prevent and ameliorate employee burnout. They ensure that managers on all levels understand the importance of supporting employee health.

This is not an easy job, however. Many managers and employees seem to struggle with balancing and negotiating the need for performance and the need for wellbeing. But are wellbeing and performance incompatible??

In a healthy workplace, performance and well-being are not in conflict. In fact, there is an element of performance within a scientific definition of wellbeing. The wellbeing is often conceptualized as consisting of two aspects :

Hedonia (aka “happiness as pleasure” or “feel-good”) is derived from the Greek word meaning "pleasure” and?is characterized by enjoyment, comfort, satisfaction, or absence of distress.

Eudaimonia or eudemonia (aka “happiness as personal fulfillment” or “feel-purpose”) is the Greek word understood as?“good spirit” “happiness,” “highest human good” and even “virtuous activity.” It involves growth, meaning, authenticity, excellence, and ethical achievement.

Eudemonic wellbeing requires the fulfillment of one’s potential and the development of one’s talents. And that, in turn, calls for stretching and challenging oneself to grow, although this stretching may not always be pleasurable. Contributing to society and growing may call for effort and perseverance, which are not the obvious ways to attain pleasure. Yet, they contribute to total wellbeing.

One way to avoid the extremes of idleness in the name of pleasure and overwork in the name of performance is to think of the optimal work as flow .

When we are challenged in a way aligned with our abilities, we can become absorbed in the task, maximally creative, and our most productive selves. The state of flow is also highly enjoyable, with eudemonia possibly resulting in hedonia.

Organizational leaders aiming to maximize productivity will benefit from remembering that the key to both organizational productivity goals and to employee wellbeing is

·?????aligning what people do with their best talents, and

·?????ensuring that people are creatively challenged but not exhausted.

Such balance and alignment support both organizational performance goals and employee wellbeing. No conflict.

Organizations are responsible for creating healthy work environments that do not push individuals into overwork and burnout. At the same time, individual employees can also use self-leadership skills to create personalized ways of stretching themselves to maximize productivity and flow.?And seld-employed individuals can use their autonomy to develop the level of challenge that best supports their wellbeing.

News items:

WORK SHOULD NOT HURT: addressing and preventing moral injury. Join me, Ron Carucci , Annette Callis , and Caroline Stokes tomorrow, May 12, 2022, at Noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific for a webinar on how to use organizational psychology skills to create ethical organizations and improve employee wellbeing - register here . EDITED: register to watch the recording here .

Catch up on the topic of moral injury and recovery with Ron Carucci and my articles in Harvard Business Review: Part 1 and Part 2 .

AND NOW ONLINE: Vanguard University Master of Arts in Organizational Psychology program. Two years ago, I was not sure how our high-touch programs would translate into an online format. Now I know that it works, and I am thrilled to announce that students can now apply for a Fall start in an online format, in addition to our face-to-face cohort. Our alumni find employment in top consulting companies like Willis Towers Watson and Deloitte, support employee development at Disney and Amazon, start their own companies, and support employee wellbeing wherever they work.