Human connection is essential to workplace success. Genuine, trust-based work relationships increase job satisfaction and enable employees to perform at their highest level.
Deloitte chief well-being officer Jen Fisher and researcher Anh Phillips lay out a strong business case for fostering workplace relationships, prioritizing self-care, becoming intentional about technology usage and consciously building well-being into your work processes.
Key Take Aways
- Authentic connection and meaningful workplace relationships nourish psychological well-being.
- Relentless striving to increase productivity and incorporate new technologies creates less humane work environments.
- Increase social bonds to combat the negative effects of technological dependency.
- Understand your work style, and that of your team members, to enhance collaboration.
- Emphasize well-being and healthy relationships to create strong team dynamics.
- Psychological safety, empathy and trust constitute the foundational pillars of a healthy team.
- Outdated and toxic ideas about overwork contribute to unhealthy workplaces.
- Create a personalized well-being plan to manage career pressures.
- Technology can’t replace the importance of people skills.
- Set clear boundaries around your use of technology.
Social Media is designed to make you an addict
Social media can hijack your time and attention. It generates rewards at unpredictable intervals to keep you scrolling, clicking and viewing for longer periods. These incentives trigger emotional reactions; you smile at feel-good pictures, laugh at funny clips, or respond to offensive, enraging or distressing stories.
Your brain responds with a chemical surge of dopamine, and like an addict, you seek another hit. Social media is designed to suck you in and keep you hooked.
Authentic and Meaningful
Authentic connection and meaningful workplace relationships nourish psychological well-being.
Loneliness is endemic in the United States, and over 40% of Americans feel lonely, even when surrounded by co-workers. Only 20% forge meaningful workplace friendships; the rest suffer disconnection, disengagement and dissatisfaction.
Loneliness increases susceptibility to cognitive decline and physical ailments. The increase in remote and gig work exacerbates this problem by reducing in-person interactions; burnout is on the rise. Workplace relationships prove essential for feeling valued and cared for.
Working Principles
Create a “Ways of Working” guide – principles that steer team members’ progress while fostering their well-being. For example, a team might prioritize principles such as “be in beta,” to emphasize the need to work collaboratively.
Team members should create a code of values to inform decision-making, such as, “well-being is priority #1” or “shared success equals individual success.”
Leaders must make well-being a strategic priority, support it with resources, communicate and advocate its benefits, and demonstrate a personal commitment by modeling healthy behaviors.
When an organization clearly articulates its vision of well-being, employees understand what it entails and how their actions and behaviors contribute to it.
Beyond Productivity
Relentless striving to increase productivity and incorporate new technologies creates less humane work environments.
The overuse of technology undermines its central purpose: to make work easier and more productive. Being digitally connected 24/7 and deluged with information and communication, paradoxically, increases alienation.
“Workism,” the lifestyle of being always on and always working, isn’t sustainable long-term. Chronic overwork eventually decreases output and causes stress-related problems such as burnout, depression, heart disease and sleep disorders.
AI is no match for People
Technology can’t replace the importance of people skills.
Digitization is not a substitute for people skills – like creativity, empathy, adaptability and emotional intelligence – that fuel problem-solving and new product development. Even quantitative and analytical jobs require a combination of right and left-brain capabilities, or hybrid skills. As the proliferation of technology and pace of change accelerates, companies must foster healthy social systems that put people skills front and center. Robust teams prioritize healthy interactions that nurture resilience, flexibility and creativity.
Setting Boundaries
To maintain your well-being, set boundaries and make intentional choices when using technology. Become aware of why, when and how you engage with it. Note compulsive desires to check your feed, phone or email; make deliberate, not reflexive, choices about how to use your time most productively.
Undergo a digital detox to wean yourself from detrimental tech-related behaviors. For example, pick a day to stay off social media, ban smartphones from the dinner table, delete apps you rarely use, or schedule device-free time.
Social Bonds
Increase social bonds to combat the negative effects of technological dependency.
Spending too much time in cyberspace depletes two of your most valuable resources: time and attention. The reduction in face-to-face interactions dehumanizes work environments and threatens the psychological safety people need to share ideas, be creative and take risks.
Workism induces people to associate their value with busyness. Responding to the constant assault of digital communications lessens your ability to differentiate between important and unimportant tasks.
Burnout
Two-thirds of employees suffer burnout. The costs to business are numerous, including employee disengagement, decreased performance and increased turnover.
The antidote to this malaise is social connection; people who report work satisfaction have strong work relationships. They suffer less stress, enjoy better attendance, and are more engaged, productive and resilient.
