Why Today's Offices Prevent Productivity - The Psychophysiology That Prevents Leaders From Attaining Their Goals

The Human Soul Will Never Thrive In A Prison.

This is Why Today's Offices Fail to Produce Results.

It is also Why "Mandating" Returning to the Office has been such a Failure across the Board.

It is Not Surprising to Watch Employees Openly Rebel against Leaders.

The Office is a Perceived Prison for Employees.

No One "Wants" to be Imprisoned.

But to Understand "Why" this is the Overall Sentiment, we must look at Human Psychophysiology.

Why has the Office become a Prison?

Well, a lot of it has to do with Trauma Responses that People Have.

Now, Trauma is Not "What" Happens to Us, but rather how we "Experience" what Happens to Us.

This is Critical because it explains a "Lot" of the Challenges we have in the World Today.

You could say that the "Experience" boils down to a Single Word.

Stressors.

Now, Stressors are not "Inherently" Good or Bad.

They "Become" Good or Bad based on our Total Level of Stressors, or our "Allostatic Load".

When our Allostatic Load is below a point, known as our "Stress Threshold", a Stressor can become Positive, or "Eu-Stress".

When our Allostatic Load is above that point, a Stressor becomes Negative, or "Dis-Stress".

When we Maintain "Dis-Stress" for Long Periods of Time, such as in "Burnout", our "Stress Threshold" also Decreases.

The Problem?

Most People's Allostatic Load is Constantly Abnormally High.

This is because "All Stress Adds".

It does "Not" Matter Where the Stress is From, they "All" Add to this Allostatic Load.

We have "Many" Constant Stressors in our Lives Today.

Bad Nutritional Practices from Companies that cause a Lack of Nutrition in our Food, further leading to loss of Energy (Mg-ATP) and Recovery Potential (Both Further Stressors).

Environmental Factors such as Increased Car Emissions, Poor Living Conditions, The Constant Stream of Negativity in the News, and the Like.

The Fact that the Cost of Living has been Outpacing Wage Increases to the Point that it is becoming Unfeasible to Live Comfortably in the US even with Two Full-Time Incomes.

Our Lives are "Filled" with Constant Stressors which put us in Near-Constant states of Dis-Stress.

This, then Negatively Impacts our ANS, or Autonomic Nervous System.

In "Theory" our ANS "Should" help us Navigate through Stressors in a Positive Way.

However, when our ANS is "Constantly" in Dis-Stress, we become Habituated to Dis-Stress Reactions, and "Everything" becomes Perceived as Danger.

Which includes the Office.

So what happens?

Most people have to Drive into an Office, to work a Job they Do Not Enjoy, to Make Less Money than they Need to Live Decently.

On Roads that have Notoriously become Worse over the Years.

This means that, before Employees even Reach the Office, they are in States of Dis-Stress.

When they finally "Get" to the Office, there are a Few Realities they Face.

The first is that Employees "Know" that No One Actually Cares About Them at their Office.

How Can I Say That?

Because it is True.

People Die in their Cubicles, and are Undiscovered for "Days", their Leaders being Completely Unaware of their Presence or Lack of Work.

Young People Die, Clinically Diagnosed as "Caused" by Work-Related Stress, and Leaders Blame the Employee for It.

Employees Engage in Coffee Badging, and Their Leaders Fail to Notice They Are Not There.

80% of the Workforce is in Burnout, and Leaders are doing "Nothing" to Fix It.

Leaders are "Demonstrating" Across the Board they Do Not Care for their Employees.

Employees are Not Stupid, and they Know Leaders Do Not Care.

Leaders may Lie and Make Claims with PR Statements about "How they Care", but they Do Not Demonstrate It in Reality.

This Leads to Resentment, and Worse Dis-Stress, Constantly in the Office.

What makes this Worse is that Dis-Stress can be "Passed" to Others, much like a Virus.

This is a Factor of Multiple things, Including Neurocardiology via a Process Known as Entrainment, as well as via Mirror Neurons and Co-Regulating which Attune our ANS States to Match Others.

So, the Office becomes "Filled" with People who are Further Spreading Dis-Stress, Resentment, and Ultimately Burnout.

This is How Workplaces Become Toxic Environments.

This makes the Office Feel like a Prison where people have a Challenge Escaping, filled with other Inmates who also are Unable to Escape.

Employees Do Not feel Safe in the Office Environment because of this.

Employees also can Not Feasibly Quit until they have another Job Ready because that becomes a Threat to their Survival based on Low Wages, which is Why Quiet Firing has Completely Failed.

If there is a Struggle between Survival and Safety, Humans tend to Ensure their Survival First.

So Employees would Rather Do "Quiet Quitting" than Actually Quit - A Severance is preferable to Nothing.

However, as Employees are Stuck in their Prisons, their Dis-Stress continues to Grow (because Mental Stressors, when maintained, become Exponentially Worse Stressors) which makes Burnout Occur Faster and Become Worse.

Which Directly Interferes with Productivity.

An Employee's Productivity Potential (Their Max Psychophysiological Productivity Capacity) gets Capped at 5% or Less in Burnout.

When 80% of the Workforce is in Burnout, meaning their Productivity Potential is Capped at 5% or Less, you can Understand Why Leaders Struggle to meet Productivity Needs.

It becomes Worse because by Forcing People into the Same Office, the "Dis-Stress" is Spreading like a Virus meaning "More" People are headed to Burnout.

Further, things like "Innovation" and "Creativity" become Impossible to Achieve based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

What Leaders "Need" for their Businesses to Succeed is Employees who are Self-Actualizing or Self-Transcending based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which are at the Top of the Pyramid of Maslow's Hierarchy.

However, Employees are Trapped in Safety and Physiological Needs, which are at the Bottom of the Pyramid of Maslow's Hierarchy.

Human Beings are Physically Unable to "Get" to Self-Actualization and Self-Transcendance if they are Stuck in Safety and Physiological Needs.

It also Explains "Why" Leaders Struggle to Create a Positive Culture.

Positive Work Cultures fall into other parts of Maslow's Hierarchy, specifically "Belongingness" and "Esteem".

However, these too are "Above" Safety and Physiological Needs.

So when Employees Do Not Feel Safe and Do Not have their Physiological Needs Met, a Business is Physically "Unable" to Create a Positive Work Culture.

Employees Do Not Feel Safe in Offices and they are Consumed with Attempting to Satisfy their Physiological Needs with Wages that Do Not Suffice.

Until this Changes, the Office will "Always" Feel like a Prison.

This means that As Long as Burnout Remains, the Physical Office will be Detrimental to Leaders and Counterproductive to "All" of a Leader's Goals.

This is also Why I say the phrase All Flourishing is Mutual.

For Businesses to Succeed, and to "Keep" Succeeding in the Long-Term, they "Need" Employees (and Customers) who are Reaching Self-Actualization and Self-Transendence.

When Employees are Trapped in Safety and Physiological Needs, the Business is Dying of Cancer.

It may be a Slow and Excruciatingly Painful Death, but it is Dying Regardless.

Many Businesses "Maintain", Not because they are Healthy Businesses, but because they are the only "Current" Viable Option due to Category King/Queen Economics.

But if you are Relying on Past Success, resting on your Laurels, it is only a Matter of Time before you are Overthrown by a New, Better Category.

Until the Employees are Flourishing, Businesses will not "Truly" be Flourishing.

They will Simply be Suffering a Painful Cancer until their Eventual Demise.

This is Why the Current Business Model is Failing, and We Need a New Model.

This is Why Leaders Need to Design a Regenerative Legacy.

Our Offices "Could" become a Positive Experience for Employees that Contributes to their Flourishing, but "Not" in their Current Form.

As long as Offices Remain a Prison, Leaders are Hopeless to Achieve Lasting Results.