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Work Isn't Working

Toxic Bosses Make People Lose Their Passion & Commitment for Their Work

Our ongoing research indicates that employees under toxic bosses experience decreased confidence, self-esteem, motivation and engagement. They feel stuck, helpless, detached, disengaged, lose passion and commitment to their work, and dread going to the office.

These employees also report reduced performance, productivity and negative impacts on their team dynamics and relationships, which leads to a diminished sense of belonging and increased feelings of isolation and distrust toward their workplace.

Laura Hambley
Toxic bosses are a global issue with devastating consequences for organizations and employees
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Work Isn't Working

Work Is Making Us Feel Disconnected

“Everyone is recognizing this feeling of disconnectedness is the No. 1 issuethey’re facing,” says Doug Camplejohn, founder and CEO of Airspeed. But, he adds, “the answer is not going back to to the office. The reality is, this problem has existed forever, and Covid had only made us all more aware and sensitive to it.”

Employee dissatisfaction and disengagement have been on the rise for years, according to Gallup.

To find better solutions, executives will need to recognize they don’t fully understand what employees want and need — at least not without further surveying and open discussions. A sweeping majority of 9 out of 10 executives say their company has a deep knowledge of their workforce, but just 6 in 10 workers agree their bosses understand what motivates them, or their personal characteristics, interests and values.

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Work Isn't Working

Activision Blizzard Can’t Hide Internal Reality Any Longer

The Activision Blizzard lawsuit has opened the floodgates
Arming decision-makers in tech, business and public policy with the unbiased, fact-based news and analysis they need to navigate a world in rapid change.
www.protocol.com

The company’s stock price has tumbled nearly 10% this week, and CEO Bobby Kotick acknowledged in a message to employees Tuesday that Activision Blizzard’s initial response was “tone deaf.” Meanwhile, there has been a continuous stream of new reports unearthing horrendous misconduct as more and more former and current employees speak out about the working conditions and alleged rampant misogyny at one of the video game industry’s largest and most powerful employers.

Organizers of the walkout are calling for change. The demonstration was billed as “the beginning of an enduring movement in favor of better labor conditions for all employees,” organizers said ahead of the event. Now, those who participated say they “will not return to silence,” according to Axios.

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Work Isn't Working

Pandemic Exposing Systemic Issues of Work

‘The industry is broken’: Inside B.C.’s restaurant labour crisis (VIDEO)
It was already an issue before the pandemic. 🍽️
www.newwestrecord.ca

While B.C. restaurants are in the middle of the peak summer season, a massive struggle to retain employees continues to grow. As the cost of living in Metro Vancouver keeps rising, workers often can’t make a viable living wage.

The pandemic totally cracked it open; it exposed all of the bad parts of our industry and we have an opportunity now to fix it.

It’s pretty obvious what needs to change and it needs to change across the board and that’s just how people are treated in the restaurant business. It has to be treated more like how every other industry is, where people aren’t pushed to their limits because of stress, because of the amount of hours worked, and because of low pay.

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Work Isn't Working

Employees Quitting Because Companies Investing in Technology Rather Than People

A key mistake leaders are making is causing the Great Resignation. Here are 3 ways to fix it
The CEO of Workhuman argues that the old model of work-for-pay, which focuses on trying to extract the best out of employees coupled with an abundant investment in technology, is backfiring on the workforce.
www.fastcompany.com

By primarily focusing on staying on top of tech advances, we’re at risk of ignoring the reality of what’s actually driving business today: our people. 

Purpose, meaning, mutual trust, and recognition are built by people one interaction at a time, and it’s up to leaders to build the infrastructure that facilitates these. Just as you expect a comprehensive plan to make your tech stack work smoothly, you need to be strategic about how your culture stack is making the most of that larger investment. 

If companies want to better understand the needs of their employees, the easiest solution is to simply ask. As technology leaders, we’re used to a seemingly incessant cycle of feedback loops when it comes to our products and solutions, and we have an obsession with the customer that eclipses most anything else and drives our roadmap. What would happen to our culture if we brought that same obsession internally, too? 

The time when it was a sign of success if work didn’t know anything about your personal life is over. It was a ludicrous notion to begin with. In today’s world, we know the value of celebrating the whole human. We must find ways to make sure that we’re seeing our coworkers for who they really are and, in turn, knowing that we are embraced and accepted for who we are.

Bringing this level of humanity into the everyday work experience is the best way to be in a position to hear from, listen to, and really get to understand what the humans in your organizations need. And understanding what needs will be a critical priority if we’re going to make it through another year of massive societal and organizational change.