The Disconnected Worker

On this Blue Tuesday, somewhere between the fourth and the fifth Corona-wave, we make some awkward observations. First, we have never been told so often that it is important to be happy at work. (A boss of mine told us in the nineties that we were not at work to be happy; there is some truth in that but the fact that his employees still remember his statement today, is clear enough.) In their search for rare talent, employers do their utmost to show concern for the well-being of their employees. Secondly, a lot of employees do not want to return to their workplace, not because of the infection risk, but because they don’t feel well anymore in their workplace (especially in the so-called 'cubicles' or in landscape offices). A lot of them got tired fighting in solitude against unachievable expectations.

Tomorrow 19 January (2000-)2022, we remember Frederick Herzberg, who described the two-factor theory or Motivator-Hygiene Theory. Basic idea is that job satisfaction comes with intrinsic motivators like challenging work, achievement, recognition, responsibility, autonomy and meaning. Job dissatisfaction is not the opposite of job satisfaction and comes with extrinsic hygiene factors like salary, status, job security, benefits, work conditions.

In a lot of cases, employees get discouraged because their opinion is never really asked. A computer questionnaire is not a good way to collect opinions. The ambient noise level in computerised companies is so high that only the loudest voices are being heard. This is most discouraging. Simon Sinek insists that good leaders are good listeners and that employees can only achieve the (‘Herzberg’) job satisfaction by looking for their ‘why’. Hilde Helsen developed her own method to assist Dreamers who Do in achieving this.

Happiness at work cannot be an employer’s responsibility only. Employees also need to get rid of meritocratic compulsive thoughts. One typical compulsive thought sounds like this: if employee A is the manager of employee B, then A must be happy and B must be unhappy. A must be the best and B must have done something wrong in the past; B can only blame himself. You may notice this reasoning is ludicrous, but suppose you end up in situation B? Jealousy (in German there is a more subtle nuance between Eifersucht and Neid) is a bad idea. How ridiculously this may sound, it dominates the way we think in a meritocratic society. The way we think is a perfect recipe to be unhappy at work.

I refer to my blogs: “The Why of Technology” and “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation”.

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