Today’s blog is a bit unique compared to our typical posts. When you read the title, you probably thought “where are they going with this?”… And while we won’t get into love in the workplace, AKA romantic relationships and potential HR complications, we will be talking about emotional workplace culture, and how burnout is created when love is lacking.
The odds are that you’ve experienced it in your life. Negative, hostile work culture fosters an indifference toward coworkers that is not easily or quickly corrected. Raised voices, hurtful language, and sarcasm are some typical culprits. What do all these negative behaviors lack? Love.
When emotional workplace culture breeds hostility or detachment, employees shut down, become emotionally depleted, and eventually even completely burnout. Burnout—which is signaled by emotional exhaustion, and decreased engagement and productivity—is a huge problem in many industries, and it’s partly caused by an uncaring, unloving work environment.
When there is no love in an organization, people lose a sense of fulfillment in their work, and their productivity suffers. It hurts the well-being of employees and the organization. It might seem misplaced to discuss love in the workplace, possibly because in our culture today, we generally think of love in a romantic context.
However, we can show love to coworkers in several ways:
Genuinely listening
Being present
Coordinating and cooperating
Mentoring
Celebrating the wins
If you’re unsure of how to foster a culture of love in the workplace, check out these 4 Ways to Create a Culture of Love at Work by Dr. Todd Hall:
Be emotionally present with others. Give them your full attention. Put your phone down, don’t check emails or texts, look the person in the eyes, and give them 100% of your attention. In an age of constant distraction, presence is a key to love and connection.
Listen to others. Especially when there is conflict or painful emotions, listening is a true gift of love. Genuine listening means you try to understand the other person’s perspective. That requires effort and setting aside your own agenda.
Express appreciation and gratitude to others. Show and express your appreciation and gratitude for your colleagues' work and for who they are. Every person brings something 100% unique to the work culture. Discover it and let them know that you are grateful for it.
Show compassion. Compassion has been defined as empathy in action. In his book, Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman talks about the compassion triad: notice, feel, act. First, you have to notice people and what they’re going through. Then you can feel empathy for what they’re going through and do something to help. What if you and everyone in your workplace practiced these things every day at work? I think you’d be more fulfilled, productive, and effective. I hope you try these practices and let me know how it goes!
Wishing you a loving February,
Source: Todd Hall
