“Of course we care about our wages and we wouldn’t work without them. But we care about more than money.We want work that is challenging and engaging, that enables us to exercise some discretion and control of what we do, and that provides us opportunities to grow.”
So says, Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore in last Sunday’s NY Times in an opinion piece titled “Rethinking Work”.
“We want to work with colleagues we respect and with supervisors who respect us. Most of all, we want work that is meaningful – that makes a difference to other people and thus ennobles us in at least some small way. We want these things so much we may even be willing to take home a thinner pay envelope to get them.”
That repeating mantra haunted me, for I, like most others I know, need to feel appreciated and valued and often didn’t feel that way at work.
When Positive Psychology – the Science of Happiness – came into my life, I discovered the practices that work in organizations to help people feel connected, committed and engaged.
Please take a few moments to really think about what this article is saying. And then ask yourself, “Is this my company he’s talking about? Is this my department he’s referring to?
If not, could it be?
I’ve rethought work – over and over again. When you add more value to the workplace you get more value in the marketplace. When you take your reflective time this week, make a list of the things you can do to create the kind of workplace imagined in the article.
Have a great week!
PS And remember – next we month we celebrate Customer Happiness Week – there is still time to order copies of Building Customer Loyalty for your whole team – it’s got 21 days’ worth of “Essential Elements” of loyalty building strategies for you to put into action!
