ExcerptBridging the Gap: Improving the Emotional Connection to WorkOverwork, anxiety and lack of challenge and recognition has colored the overall emotional connection of workers to their jobs, according to a Towers Perrin study. And workers’ attitudes are going to need more than just an economic recovery to emerge feeling positive about their work life. Here are some pointers gleaned from the study on how to bridge the gap between how workers feel and how managers perceive them to feel—and how to help workers plug into a more positive emotional connection to their jobs. Focus on ways to build self-esteem in your workers. The study showed that workers can feel intensely positive about their jobs from the self-esteem they get through feeling connected and competent in their work. While that ought to be obvious, the managers in the study predicted that this would matter little. You’re not as important as you think, either. And that’s good. While the workers ranked management as a negative factor, it was one of many. Managers, however, predicted that management would have been much more important—on the negative side! So while you expect to bear the brunt of your employees’ negative feelings toward work, they may be cutting you more slack than you realize.
|