Excerpt

Disconnect: Exploring the Emotional Connection to Work

© Claire Communications

Human resources consultancy Towers Perrin created quite a stir a few years ago when it released its study showing the deep emotional connection that workers have with their work—and clearly documented just how negative those emotions are for most workers….

Using sophisticated market research techniques that actually measure the intensity of emotion, Towers Perrin surveyed 1,100 workers in mid-sized and large companies. So instead of the usual “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree” scales, workers’ feelings toward job recognition, for example, could be directly compared to their feelings about their workload.

Overall the study showed that workers have a tremendously strong emotional connection to their job—both positive and negative. More importantly, the overall emotional balance was negative, and one-third of the emotional content was “intensely” negative. The key factors were:
• An excessive workload
• Concerns about management’s ability to lead the company
• Anxiety about the future, particular longer-term job, income and retirement security

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