It was a collective howl of powerlessness, despair, cynicism and rage:
“Why do I hate work? Because profits over people have created a corporate environment where I am just as disposable as any other ‘resource.’”
“Hospitals proclaim that they appreciate their nurses, but they make a 12-hour work day the standard.”
“I was never so poorly treated, undervalued, underpaid and overworked than as an adjunct professor in three different universities.”
“When I worked in the ski resort industry, it struck me that if we cared for our lifts and grooming machines in the same manner as our employees, we’d be fired in short order for negligence.”
“I loved my 23 years in the Navy. Civilian jobs pretty well stink.”
“I work 9-5 and not a minute more. After being laid off four times, I refuse to give any corporation a minute more than I have to.”
“The company that does not see its employees as disposable is as rare as hen’s teeth.”
“Sheryl Sandberg, take note. The reason more women — and men — don’t lean in is that for many, work is a draining, soulless disappointment.”
“Things are so awful it takes a median $10 million compensation to get anyone to be C.E.O. of these companies.”
Those are just a handful of short excerpts from nearly 500 overwhelmingly acid comments that readers sent me about the work they do, in response to “Why You Hate Your Job,” the article my colleague Christine Porath and I wrote for The New York Times’s Sunday Review section.
I spend all of my working days thinking about this issue. Even so, I was stunned to discover how pervasively and deeply so many people feel victimized, diminished and disempowered by the work that consumes the biggest portion of their waking hours.
It doesn’t have to be that way. I say that based on my experience running a small business for the past 11 years, and after spending countless hours visiting, studying and working with large organizations of all kinds.
There are some deep and complicated reasons that only a small percentage of employees around the world feel truly engaged and satisfied at work. There are also some simple solutions that leaders and managers can introduce at virtually no cost that would make any workplace more humane and desirable — and, in all likelihood, also increase profitability.
Here are my top six:
1. Respect and hold the value of every person who works for you, because nothing matters more. In practical terms, be actively interested in their well-being, regularly express your appreciation for their contributions and accomplishments (the more specifically, the better) and see in them potential they may not have yet fully recognized in themselves. Feeling cared for and encouraged to grow builds trust and loyalty, which frees people to spend less energy defending their own value and more energy creating value.
2. Start measuring people by the value they create, not by the number of hours they work. That means defining for them (and with them) exactly what success looks like. It also requires treating them as adults, capable of deciding for themselves how best to get their work done without constant oversight. To the extent possible, let them decide where to do their work, and when to do it, as long as they meet deadlines. In our company, for example, we encourage people to work however they want, as their jobs permit, while also setting aside two days a week that we can all be together to do more collaborative work.
3. Support, encourage and reward people for not responding constantly to email, and even for turning it off entirely at selected times, to get their most challenging and important work accomplished. Concentration serves excellence. Focusing in an absorbed way on one thing at a time is also a far more efficient way to get work done. Encourage people, as well, to set aside sacrosanct time in their calendars to reflect about the work they’ve done, prioritize the work they need to do and think more creatively, strategically and long term.
4. Help people build more renewal into their lives, on and off the job. The greater the demand for performance, the greater the need for renewal. But our inclination is just the opposite. As demand grows ever more intense, we instinctively push ourselves harder, for longer. As just one example, encourage people to take a midafternoon walk or run outside, or a 15- to 25-minute nap wherever that’s possible, all of which would significantly increase their alertness and productivity in the subsequent hours.
5. Actively focus on making people’s jobs matter more. Help them to define their work — whatever it is — in a way that allows them to do more of what they do best. Also, seek to define all jobs in ways that feel meaningful and significant to people, recognizing the desire we all have to contribute to something larger than ourselves.
6. The way you behave every day makes a far stronger statement than anything you can ever say.

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