OPEN THREAD: Let's Talk about Wellness at Work
Why the online yoga classes are not cutting it as a workplace wellness program.
Wellness, or Well-Being has become a staple of the corporate HR experience. Having spent some time working with HR leaders in global companies, I’m heartened to see organizations such as Met Life prioritizing wellness by building it into their organizations, even supporting a Chief Employee Experience & Care Officer. Companies such as AT&T, EY, Aon, even the CIA have hired chief well-being officers and built a practice into their organizations.
For these organizations, wellness is not just supported with an online yoga class and signup sheet: It’s part of a what Carolyn Tandy, SVP, Chief Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer at Humana Inc., calls psychological safety.
“Psychological safety at work allows employees to express themselves without fear of reprisal or disdain. It is more than just a buzzword; psychological safety is crucial for fostering innovation, delivering high-quality products and valuing employee wellbeing. The American Psychological Association’s Work in America Survey reveals that nearly 60% of workers surveyed consider psychological safety very important, with an additional 35% considering it somewhat important. These statistics demonstrate the significance of valuing employees’ emotional and psychological wellbeing in the workplace.
And yet, there are still plenty of companies who are not onboard the Well-Being Train. Or, even worse, they masquerade as proponents of well-being while ignoring the fundamentals of how we feel good about ourselves and our work. As Morra Aarons Mele, points out in her weekly newsletter, The Anxious Achiever, wellness is a management issue, often wrongly delegated to employees. How many of us have had our wellness impacted because we had poor managers who would not set clear expectations, or who piled on on unrealistic amounts of work, or who barked at us in meetings?
This week we explore Workplace Well-Being, whatever that workplace looks like—a corporate office, startup loft, or living room couch. And we ask you: What are the fundamentals of Well-Being? And how can BOTH employees and employers support it?
I think this is very in line with what we talked about in a conversationality a few weeks ago, how employees actually cite proper compensation, respected boundaries, and respectful communications as more important to their actual mental health and well-being than some of the programs companies institute or pay for. As a manager, I think there are two things I try to live by that are really good for my teams. 1. I believe in public praise and private critique whenever possible. It’s so toxic to see leaders or managers tear down people in their chain of command in front of other team members 2. I believe in giving credit to the team when things go well and taking the ownership when things do not. The worst boss I ever had to the opposite. He took all the credit when things went well, and threw the team under the bus when things did not go well. I vowed 20 years ago to not be that guy.
If people are curious, the idea of psychological safety Jory cites was first conceived by Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School, who was trying to understand why medical teams that looked to be making more mistakes were actually better, more effective teams. It seemed counterintuitive, but what her data was telling her was not that successful teams necessarily made more mistakes, they were just reporting them more--to each other, which thwarted small mistakes from becoming bigger ones. Edmondson decided that the IT factor on those teams was Psychological Safety, which is when people feel like they can take risks, ask questions, and make mistakes--and not fear negative repercussions. Creating an environment where people can fail forward is key to a team's success and well being.