I’ve been saying this for a long time. If your remote, hybrid, or in-office situation isn’t working, it’s likely because your manager is the problem. Managers haven’t been taught how to lead with well-being in mind, so they fall back on old habits. Those habits can eliminate the well-being benefits of remote work, for example,…
It’s a job. Even if you love your team, it’s a job. When it no longer serves your life, you can leave. When it’s overwhelming to you, you can take a break. If the rest of your team is overwhelmed because you took a day off or left shorthanded because someone left for a better job, that’s management’s problem. You didn’t create this “do more with less” strategy around hiring. They did.
Yes, those are things we should tell our family and friends. They are also 100% the things we should tell employees. What makes a difference for employees other than pay? Knowing that the work they do is appreciated and makes a difference. How will they know if you don’t tell them? How will they know that you notice their effort if you don’t tell them you notice it?
One glaring example of this is mental health. How many of your managers have even the barest of training in how to deal with mental health issues on their team? How many have more than a cursory knowledge of what your employee assistance program offers and the requirements for accommodations for your area and industry?
There’s a reason this is happening in Europe, and I have no doubt you’d find the same thing in the US. Our Employee Assistance programs try to help the individual when it’s the system that is the problem. You can’t solve the problem if you don’t identify it.
I’ve mentioned before that in some of the worst of my mental health struggles, I had a manager who helped me manage the process and was incredibly supportive of me doing what I needed to do, and I later had a manager who made the entire thing awkward and unbearable for me. This was at the same company. Nothing about the rules or the program changed, but my manager did. That made all the difference between me staying and being productive and walking out the door.