September 21, 2023 • 32 mins
What if I told you that the conventional concept of workplace wellness is outdated and ineffective and that the responsibility of managing stress shouldn't solely rest on the shoulders of employees?
Perhaps the Job Strain Model is no longer suitable for the contemporary work environment due to evolving job demands, a diverse workforce, and the rapid advancement of technology.
In this episode, we unpack these statements.
We will challenge current wellness programs and turn to the research of Dr. Sonia Lupien and Dr. Meg Lovejoy for insights. We pose critical questions about the work systems in place that contribute to stress, urging a redefinition of workplace wellness.
Tune in for a mind-opening discussion on how we can better support our employees' health and well-being.
Links:
- Work Redesign for the 21st Century: Promising Strategies for Enhancing Worker Well-Being
- Stable Scheduling Study: Health Outcomes Report
- Using Kaizen to Improve Employee Well-Being
If something you heard today brought a smile to your face or a spark to your heart, and you’d like to connect with me, here are a few ways you can do that.
One is my newsletter, it’s where I put most of my time and energy when I’m not working with clients or on this podcast. Sorry social media! It’s a mix of real life stories, tips and tricks and of course updates on what’s happening with the podcast. Whenever something is going on with me or in my business, it always comes out there first.
Another resource that I have for you is my Guide to Doing Work Differently. The guide takes you through four inquiries into how you can build a more sustainable and equitable work environment for yourself and your team. It's a great place to start.
Last, if you’ve got a burning question, a comment, or a situation you’d like my eyes on, you can email me at candice@fortressandflourish.com.
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to know when the next episodes come out, and if you’re feeling generous, leave a review. Reviews help other like-minded folks find their way to this resource.
Learn more about Candice and her work here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
The hearth is for you if you're a business leader
with a team.
Here we have conversationsabout how to keep growing.
When you feel you've reachedyour capacity, when what you're
doing is working but you'restarting to see the cracks, when
there's a gap between whereyou're at now and where you want
(00:26):
to be, here we find ways totransition through the struggle
of survival toward creating athriving business that supports
you and your team as wholehumans.
Your host is me, candiceElliott.
I'm a business strategist andmentor who specializes in
(00:49):
working with business owners whoare going through periods of
growth.
Especially when you're addingmore people to your team, the
practices and systems thatworked when your team was
smaller just don't seem to fitanymore, and when you're caught
in stress and reaction, it'stough to reimagine the way that
(01:14):
you created your world of work,both your own personal one and
the one that you created forothers.
I help people align theirvalues and business practices to
build practical, sustainable,thriving work ecosystems and no,
(01:35):
this isn't just some workutopia talk.
To do this, I bring forward mydecade-long professional
background in human resourcesand organizational development,
working with growing businessesacross many sectors, and my
decades-long search for meaningand wholeness, which includes
(01:59):
researching the history of workand how it came to be what it is
today, practicing atrauma-informed approach to
business and integrating work,life and spirituality into a
meaningful whole.
Let's take this journeytogether.
Hello everyone, welcome back tothe Hearth.
(02:29):
I am overjoyed to be bringingyou this episode that is about
employee health and theworkplace, and since last season
, I've been doing quite a bit ofresearch into like in the
(02:50):
academic world, in academicpapers, into different kinds of
studies that have been happeningand coming to understand where
the current direction is goingwith what's recommended in the
(03:11):
workplace to support employeehealth in particular.
So the next few episodes aregoing to focus on different
aspects of employee health.
So today, what I'm going tofocus on is within the field of
human resources.
One way well, not just humanresources, business in general
(03:35):
one way that business for thelast 20 or so years, has worked
toward supporting wellness foremployees is through workplace
wellness programs or workplacewellness initiatives, and so
there are all of these differentkinds of things that can be
(03:56):
included in a workplace wellnessprogram.
It may include gym memberships,it may include massages during
lunch breaks, it may include aweight loss challenge or a step
count challenge or a bike towork, challenge or different
(04:21):
things like that.
And what is coming out of theresearch is that these types of
programs, because they assumethat employees can and should
manage stressful work conditionson their own, they don't
(04:41):
actually have the effect ofdecreasing the stress that
employees are experiencing,because the stressful work
conditions that employeesundergo are not self-imposed.
For the most part, they are apart of the systems that we have
(05:02):
created in our businesses, andso the programs and initiatives
that are typically part ofworkplace wellness programs,
while they are geared towardhealth outcomes, they're not
impacting health in a meaningfulway because they're not
(05:23):
addressing the root issue ofstress.
And there is now so muchresearch.
I mean Dr Sonia Lupien at theUniversity of Montreal is one
paper that you could look at.
She looks at the effects ofstress throughout the lifespan
(05:45):
on the brain, behavior andcognition, and she explains that
there's a link between thenegative effects of stress on
health, both physical andemotional health, and the
duration that a personexperiences stress for.
And that's one study.
There's so many more, and ifyou want to learn more about how
(06:08):
stress affects the bodyphysically and in behaviors, you
can listen to season one.
I believe it's episode three.
That really dives into that.
Coming to a realization of thisis what Dr Meg Lovejoy did in
(06:30):
her paper called Work Redesignedfor the 21st Century, and what
she proposes is a reorganizationof everyday work with two aims
one of enabling individuals towork productively while also
(06:52):
promoting health and well-being,and she proposes to do this
through updating what's calledthe Job Strain Model.
And the Job Strain Model issomething that was created in
1979.
It is a part of organizationaldevelopment, business management
(07:20):
, human resources managementtheory.
It was based on research thatwas conducted at the end of
World War II through the 1970s.
So this model was created basedon information from about 1950
to about the middle of 1970.
(07:43):
And what it shows is thatstress is affected by the
demands of a job, the amount ofdiscretion that a person has in
their decision-making authorityand the capacity for social
(08:03):
support at work.
So these three things wereidentified.
As if you, depending on thedemands of the job, the amount
of decision-making authority youhave and the social support
that you have, your job is moreor less stressful.
And now we have the link ofstress is also tied to both
(08:26):
physical and emotionalwell-being.
Right, but the original model?
It suggests certain actions,which are based on the workplace
as it existed in 1950 to 1970sright, which is much different
(08:48):
from the typical workplace orworker of today.
Some of the major shifts thathave happened during that time
are that there are far lesssingle-earner family households
that workers are.
There are more workers who arecaretakers than there were at
(09:13):
that time, both caretakers ofchildren and also of elderly,
because now, as people areliving longer, there is more of
a demand within families to carefor our elderly folks, and the
diversity of the workforce haschanged quite a bit.
(09:34):
There also have been shifts inthe ways that businesses are run
.
There have been technologyshifts.
There have been so manydifferent changes over the
course of that time, and so whatDr Meg Lovejoy proposes doing
in the update is to take intoaccount all of those changes.
(09:55):
If we continue to place theresponsibility of stressful
conditions experienced in theworkplace on the employee solely
and we don't takeresponsibility for inquiring
into the systems that we havecreated and whether or not they
(10:18):
need to be stressful in the waythey are in order to get to the
outcomes that we are desiring,there are a few things that
happen.
So when people are in jobswhere their schedules are
uncertain, for example I meanfor an hourly employee it could
(10:43):
mean that they could be calledin at any time.
Their shifts could be changedat any time.
They never know what theirschedule is going to be.
That kind of a thing.
For an exempt worker, aprofessional worker, it could be
that they're always expected tobe answering their emails,
(11:04):
regardless of what time they'reactually supposed to be working.
Thank you.
They have responsibilities forthings outside of times when
they should be working, so like,for example, if they're on a
vacation and they're responsiblefor some key thing that there's
no one else that's trained todo it, so while they're gone
(11:27):
they have to do it.
Or, you know, if they're takingtime away for a leave of
absence, like a medical leave ofabsence, but they can't
actually take all of the timebecause they are not able to
transition all of theresponsibilities.
These kinds of things areassociated with an increased
(11:48):
risk of poor health outcomes,and those poor health outcomes
include things likecardiovascular disease,
heightened work, familyconflicts and in a few episodes
I'm going to talk in more detailabout the work, family conflict
dynamic and hyperhypothyroidism, hypertension, autoimmune
(12:13):
disorders.
There are all kinds of thingsthat are linked to these kinds
of stressful conditions.
It's specifically related toschedule control and control
over workload, and so if wedon't inquire into this when
(12:34):
it's happening, you know we justare saying, well, they're
working for me, so I expect themto work these hours and they
have to be available all thetime because I'm paying them
money, which I hear from a lotof business owners.
It doesn't take into accountthe fact that, in order for this
person to keep working for youfor a long time, in order for
(12:58):
them to be healthy, to be fullypresent and creative and, you
know, able to meet the changingdynamics of the workplace and be
innovative and deal withstressful like real stressful
situations that come up, itmeans that we're going to burn
people out and they're going toleave and they're going to go.
Try to find another place towork where they don't have to
(13:20):
deal with all of that, right?
So what can you do, right?
Like I don't want to leave thiswith.
Like, here are all of theproblems.
This is how, like the way youhave set up a workplace, or the
way you know we believe that wehave to set up work, or, you
know, by default it has becomethis way.
(13:40):
Like I don't want to leave usin this hopeless space, right, I
want to give us some action,noble steps.
So one thing to look at is jobcontrol, to give control over
the time that work is happeningand how it is happening to the
(14:01):
employees as much as possible,and that takes a level of trust,
right.
So there have been quite a fewdifferent studies around
scheduling.
That's like one of those thingsthat's measurable, right, but
there were.
There was a stable schedulingstudy at GAP retail stores in
(14:25):
San Francisco and then there wasanother stable scheduling study
that happened, I believe it was, with Best Buy Stores in the
Midwest.
But basically, throughout thesestudies they showed that there
were positive outcomes whenschedules were stabilized.
The way that schedules werestabilized was by and these are
(14:50):
all part-time shift workers, sogiving two weeks advanced notice
of when someone needs to beworking, eliminating on-calls,
introducing tech-enabled shiftswapping, and so you know some
kind of a program where peoplecan access their own schedule
and shift and swap shifts withpeople directly through that
(15:14):
schedule that there was a stableshift structure and core
scheduling.
So this means that basicallythe shifts were the same week to
week and people were generallyscheduled for similar shifts
(15:34):
week to week, and then everyonewas working part-time plus, so
more than 20 hours, rather thanpotentially being scheduled for
like eight hours one week andthen you know 20 hours the next
week.
And they added additionaltargeted staffing for busier
times and what this showed likewhat came out of this was that
(16:00):
at those GAP stores this is theGAP study sales increased by 5%
and the margin with this retailkind of situation is 1% the
profit margin.
So when you're increasing by 5%,that's pretty significant.
The amount of productivity thatwas increased was 7%.
(16:23):
And then on top of that,employees self-reported some
positive health outcomes.
So there was an increase inpeople's rest, like their.
Their quality of sleepincreased.
And then also they reporteddecreased levels of stress, and
(16:49):
stress levels decreased acrossthe whole employee population.
They decreased more for peoplewho had more than one job.
I think it was 9% decrease forpeople who had more than one job
and a 15% decrease for peoplewho had care-taking
(17:10):
responsibilities, like childrenor elderly that they were taking
care of.
This is really significantHaving control over when I'm
working, knowing when I'mworking, knowing when I need to
be on and when I can be off.
You know when I can be takingcare of my responsibilities
(17:31):
outside of my job is integral tomaking significant changes in
the amount of stress that peopleare experiencing at work, and a
lot of these studies have beendone on shift work.
But that doesn't mean that theprincipals do not apply to
(17:54):
exempt employees, people who areearning salaries.
So I encourage you to thinkabout your salaried employees as
well.
You know, if you're consideringmaking some shifts and thinking
, you know, like, how do Irequest that a person does
(18:14):
something for me?
Do I send a demand or am Iasking in what way this person
can get it to me?
Thinking about the lines, thevarying lines of communication
that there are and again, thisalso applies to shift work but
thinking about all the differentlines of communication, like
when is it appropriate to text,when is it appropriate to call,
(18:37):
when is it appropriate to sendan email?
When is it appropriate to, youknow, get on Slack or Google
chat or you know whateversystems you're using for
communication?
When do you go there?
And then what is the expectedturnaround time once you're
there?
Thinking about your timelines,like do you need to ask someone
(19:02):
to do that this afternoon, or isit okay if they get it to you
in three days or early next weekor by the end of next week.
I think we live in a time of,you know, immediacy, right?
It's like I can go on Amazonand order something and have it
tomorrow, like basicallyanything I want, and people are
(19:30):
more stressed the more immediateneeds and the more immediate
demands there are on their time,and so we can't treat people
like this resource that is anever-ending source of energy,
because it's not.
People become depleted the moredemands and less control they
(19:51):
have over their time.
That brings us to this nextpiece, which is job demands.
In this space of job demands,we look at what are all the
components that make up this job, what are the types of skills
that are required and what isrequired of the person
physically in the workenvironment in order to be
(20:14):
successful in the job, and thenthis also gets into autonomy.
So, within this space of jobdemands, in order to create a
less stressful environment forsomeone in their work, we look
at what are those physicalcomponents Like.
(20:36):
Is this, for example, a job thatis happening where they have a
lot of travel, where they areexposed to a lot of heat or
exposed to a lot of cold?
Is it a job where the persondoes not have very much autonomy
, where they can't decide whento do something or how to do
(20:59):
something.
And when we look at job demands, some of them are not gonna
change, right, like, if I'm aroofer, I'm gonna be working on
a roof, it's gonna be hot, I'mgonna need to be safe and secure
in my work.
That's not gonna change.
Something that could change isthe amount of autonomy, for
(21:21):
example, that a person has overthe specific gear that they're
using, because they have apreference for certain gear over
other gear.
Right, this is kind of adynamic one to look at.
With regard to job demands,it's really specific to the
particular job the person hasand the work environment.
(21:42):
But generally, what you'retrying to look at is, among the
demands that there are on thisperson, are there ways to
decrease things that bring morestress and increase things that
bring more autonomy?
It's through autonomy thatpeople are able to feel like
(22:07):
they have control over thedemands of the job, and so,
really, if there are ways foryou to either change the demands
or give more autonomy, that isthe way to go.
This is why it's so beneficialto start to create training
(22:30):
programs, to create resourceswhere people can find
information themselves, tocreate peer and mentor networks
within the organization so thatthere is more support for job
demands.
The third thing that we can lookat which is a part of this job
(22:52):
strain model and updating thisjob strain model to reflect the
world that we live in now islooking at social support.
So creating well, really, itstarts with prioritizing
(23:16):
supporting employees, personaland family lives and supporting
social networks within theworkplace.
You have to make social supporta priority from both.
It has to be from the bottom upand the top down.
So this means in someorganizations people are
(23:41):
expected to be, for an example,an organization where you have
billable hours, where you'reexpecting everyone to be like
100% billable hours.
Well, that means there's notime for anything else.
There's no time for checking inwith your boss, there's no time
(24:03):
for meetings, there's no timefor emails, let alone is there
really time for you to get lunchor have a coffee with a
coworker, because it'simpossible really to have 100%
billable hours.
It means that you're gonna haveto work hours that are not your
work hours in order to be ableto get it that high.
(24:26):
So what you can do is look at autilization rate and determine
like, okay, maybe we'll have a70% utilization rate for
billable hours where people arebilling to projects, and then
people can have 30% of time todo other things.
Some of those things can bework related things, and then
other of those things can besocial things where people are
(24:49):
connecting.
The US surgeon general, at thetime of recording this a few
months ago, released theloneliness report that just says
that people in the UnitedStates in general are suffering
from an epidemic of loneliness,and in the end of that report
(25:10):
there are all of these sectionsfor different, for ways that
different types of organizationscan assist and help to curb
this impact of loneliness that'shappening.
And one of them talks about theworkplace, and it talks about
not just creating time and spacefor these kinds of social
(25:33):
networks to be created withinthe workplace, but also giving
managers the tools that theyneed in order to be able to
support employees' personal andfamily life more broadly.
Businesses are a part of anetwork.
We're not just the place wherea person works.
(25:56):
Right Through that person, weare connected to the broader
community.
So we're connected to thatperson's family and we're
connected to the social groupsthat that person is
participating in and we'reconnected to the different
places where they're spendingtheir time.
The more we're able to supportour people to fully experience
(26:20):
the fullness of their lives inour communities, the better off
we're all going to be.
If our employees are so drainedby the end of the day that all
they're doing is sitting on thecouch and watching TV which that
is totally fine Sometimes weall need that right but that
doesn't provide the same kind ofsupport as if they're going to
(26:43):
their chess club or theirknitting circle, or even going
to the brewery and seeing theirfriends having dinner somewhere.
There's not so much of adynamic experience of community
if people are so stressed thatthey're not even able to get out
(27:06):
of their house.
Right, and this is really a waythat business can impact the
vitality of community, and I'mgoing to be talking more about
that, actually, in the nextepisode.
Before I finish, I just wantedto talk a little bit about.
You know, in addition to thesethings, one of the things that I
(27:30):
have some experience in andjust like love, my brain loves
is lean management practices,and I just if like there are
things about efficiency thatjust make me so excited,
especially when people are ableto be efficient in a way that
(27:52):
saves them time, so that theyare able to be less stressed and
so that things can work better.
Like that just makes me soexcited.
But I think that when weimplement lean management
practices, we still have toorient toward the workers well
being, because we can, you know,be so into creating these lean
(28:16):
management practices and thisefficiency and saving all this
time and, you know, all thesewonderful outcomes.
But if we don't also build intothat the space for people to
connect, the space for people tolearn and to become autonomous,
the space for people to havecontrol over their schedules and
the ability to shift them asthey need to, and then we're
(28:39):
ultimately doing ourselves adisservice because we're going
to be increasing our turnoverand decreasing our ability
really to be profitable.
So just to kind of conclude thistalk there, you know, in this
research that I've been doing,there is some data about cost.
The data on like wellnessinitiatives versus work redesign
(29:05):
initiatives is that employeewellness programs now typically
cost in the realm of $700 peremployee and I'm pretty sure
that's per year Whereas workredesign efforts are more on the
side of $340 per employee.
(29:29):
It's also something that, witha workplace wellness program.
That's an investment thatyou're making year after year
after year, whereas if you'regoing through a process of
redesigning the work that'shappening in your organization,
it's something that's not goingto happen every year, right Like
you're going to do some kind ofa work, redesign effort and
(29:51):
then, typically, if you're goingto expand significantly again,
then you would have another lookat how the work is going to
happen.
So it's not something thathappens every year.
Something that maybe happensevery time there's a big shift
and depending on how much yourcompany is changing would
(30:12):
determine how frequently thatwould happen.
There's just like so muchresearch on this link between
the workplace and employeehealth.
This is really what I'm going tobe focusing my solo episodes
this season on, at least thefirst part of the season.
If any of this was of interestto you, if you would like me to
(30:37):
send you any additionalresources, we're going to link a
lot of things in the show notes, but if there's anything
specifically that you wanted toask me about or want to know
more about, please reach out.
I would love to have aconversation.
Hit subscribe to know when thenext episodes come out and, if
(30:59):
you're feeling generous, pleaseleave a review.
Reviews help other like-mindedfolks find their way to this
resource.
If something you heard todaybrought a smile to your face or
a spark to your heart and you'dlike to connect with me, there
are a few ways to do that.
One is my newsletter, where Iput most of my time and energy
(31:24):
when I'm not working withclients or with my family, or
working on this podcast Sorry,social media.
The newsletter is a mix of reallife stories, tips and tricks
and, of course, updates onwhat's happening with the
podcast.
Whenever something's going onwith me or in my business, it
(31:44):
always comes out there first.
Another resource that I havefor you is my guide to doing
work differently.
This guide takes you throughfour inquiries into how you can
build a more sustainable andequitable work environment for
yourself and your team.
It's a great place if you'relooking for somewhere to get
(32:07):
started.
Last, if you've got a burningquestion, a comment or a
situation you'd like my eyes on,you can email me.
All those links are in the shownotes.
Take care, brave a soul, catchyou next time.
The hearth is for you if you're a business leader
with a team.
Here we have conversationsabout how to keep growing.
When you feel you've reachedyour capacity, when what you're
doing is working but you'restarting to see the cracks, when
there's a gap between whereyou're at now and where you want
(00:26):
to be, here we find ways totransition through the struggle
of survival toward creating athriving business that supports
you and your team as wholehumans.
Your host is me, candiceElliott.
I'm a business strategist andmentor who specializes in
(00:49):
working with business owners whoare going through periods of
growth.
Especially when you're addingmore people to your team, the
practices and systems thatworked when your team was
smaller just don't seem to fitanymore, and when you're caught
in stress and reaction, it'stough to reimagine the way that
(01:14):
you created your world of work,both your own personal one and
the one that you created forothers.
I help people align theirvalues and business practices to
build practical, sustainable,thriving work ecosystems and no,
(01:35):
this isn't just some workutopia talk.
To do this, I bring forward mydecade-long professional
background in human resourcesand organizational development,
working with growing businessesacross many sectors, and my
decades-long search for meaningand wholeness, which includes
(01:59):
researching the history of workand how it came to be what it is
today, practicing atrauma-informed approach to
business and integrating work,life and spirituality into a
meaningful whole.
Let's take this journeytogether.
Hello everyone, welcome back tothe Hearth.
(02:29):
I am overjoyed to be bringingyou this episode that is about
employee health and theworkplace, and since last season
, I've been doing quite a bit ofresearch into like in the
(02:50):
academic world, in academicpapers, into different kinds of
studies that have been happeningand coming to understand where
the current direction is goingwith what's recommended in the
(03:11):
workplace to support employeehealth in particular.
So the next few episodes aregoing to focus on different
aspects of employee health.
So today, what I'm going tofocus on is within the field of
human resources.
One way well, not just humanresources, business in general
(03:35):
one way that business for thelast 20 or so years, has worked
toward supporting wellness foremployees is through workplace
wellness programs or workplacewellness initiatives, and so
there are all of these differentkinds of things that can be
(03:56):
included in a workplace wellnessprogram.
It may include gym memberships,it may include massages during
lunch breaks, it may include aweight loss challenge or a step
count challenge or a bike towork, challenge or different
(04:21):
things like that.
And what is coming out of theresearch is that these types of
programs, because they assumethat employees can and should
manage stressful work conditionson their own, they don't
(04:41):
actually have the effect ofdecreasing the stress that
employees are experiencing,because the stressful work
conditions that employeesundergo are not self-imposed.
For the most part, they are apart of the systems that we have
(05:02):
created in our businesses, andso the programs and initiatives
that are typically part ofworkplace wellness programs,
while they are geared towardhealth outcomes, they're not
impacting health in a meaningfulway because they're not
(05:23):
addressing the root issue ofstress.
And there is now so muchresearch.
I mean Dr Sonia Lupien at theUniversity of Montreal is one
paper that you could look at.
She looks at the effects ofstress throughout the lifespan
(05:45):
on the brain, behavior andcognition, and she explains that
there's a link between thenegative effects of stress on
health, both physical andemotional health, and the
duration that a personexperiences stress for.
And that's one study.
There's so many more, and ifyou want to learn more about how
(06:08):
stress affects the bodyphysically and in behaviors, you
can listen to season one.
I believe it's episode three.
That really dives into that.
Coming to a realization of thisis what Dr Meg Lovejoy did in
(06:30):
her paper called Work Redesignedfor the 21st Century, and what
she proposes is a reorganizationof everyday work with two aims
one of enabling individuals towork productively while also
(06:52):
promoting health and well-being,and she proposes to do this
through updating what's calledthe Job Strain Model.
And the Job Strain Model issomething that was created in
1979.
It is a part of organizationaldevelopment, business management
(07:20):
, human resources managementtheory.
It was based on research thatwas conducted at the end of
World War II through the 1970s.
So this model was created basedon information from about 1950
to about the middle of 1970.
(07:43):
And what it shows is thatstress is affected by the
demands of a job, the amount ofdiscretion that a person has in
their decision-making authorityand the capacity for social
(08:03):
support at work.
So these three things wereidentified.
As if you, depending on thedemands of the job, the amount
of decision-making authority youhave and the social support
that you have, your job is moreor less stressful.
And now we have the link ofstress is also tied to both
(08:26):
physical and emotionalwell-being.
Right, but the original model?
It suggests certain actions,which are based on the workplace
as it existed in 1950 to 1970sright, which is much different
(08:48):
from the typical workplace orworker of today.
Some of the major shifts thathave happened during that time
are that there are far lesssingle-earner family households
that workers are.
There are more workers who arecaretakers than there were at
(09:13):
that time, both caretakers ofchildren and also of elderly,
because now, as people areliving longer, there is more of
a demand within families to carefor our elderly folks, and the
diversity of the workforce haschanged quite a bit.
(09:34):
There also have been shifts inthe ways that businesses are run
.
There have been technologyshifts.
There have been so manydifferent changes over the
course of that time, and so whatDr Meg Lovejoy proposes doing
in the update is to take intoaccount all of those changes.
(09:55):
If we continue to place theresponsibility of stressful
conditions experienced in theworkplace on the employee solely
and we don't takeresponsibility for inquiring
into the systems that we havecreated and whether or not they
(10:18):
need to be stressful in the waythey are in order to get to the
outcomes that we are desiring,there are a few things that
happen.
So when people are in jobswhere their schedules are
uncertain, for example I meanfor an hourly employee it could
(10:43):
mean that they could be calledin at any time.
Their shifts could be changedat any time.
They never know what theirschedule is going to be.
That kind of a thing.
For an exempt worker, aprofessional worker, it could be
that they're always expected tobe answering their emails,
(11:04):
regardless of what time they'reactually supposed to be working.
Thank you.
They have responsibilities forthings outside of times when
they should be working, so like,for example, if they're on a
vacation and they're responsiblefor some key thing that there's
no one else that's trained todo it, so while they're gone
(11:27):
they have to do it.
Or, you know, if they're takingtime away for a leave of
absence, like a medical leave ofabsence, but they can't
actually take all of the timebecause they are not able to
transition all of theresponsibilities.
These kinds of things areassociated with an increased
(11:48):
risk of poor health outcomes,and those poor health outcomes
include things likecardiovascular disease,
heightened work, familyconflicts and in a few episodes
I'm going to talk in more detailabout the work, family conflict
dynamic and hyperhypothyroidism, hypertension, autoimmune
(12:13):
disorders.
There are all kinds of thingsthat are linked to these kinds
of stressful conditions.
It's specifically related toschedule control and control
over workload, and so if wedon't inquire into this when
(12:34):
it's happening, you know we justare saying, well, they're
working for me, so I expect themto work these hours and they
have to be available all thetime because I'm paying them
money, which I hear from a lotof business owners.
It doesn't take into accountthe fact that, in order for this
person to keep working for youfor a long time, in order for
(12:58):
them to be healthy, to be fullypresent and creative and, you
know, able to meet the changingdynamics of the workplace and be
innovative and deal withstressful like real stressful
situations that come up, itmeans that we're going to burn
people out and they're going toleave and they're going to go.
Try to find another place towork where they don't have to
(13:20):
deal with all of that, right?
So what can you do, right?
Like I don't want to leave thiswith.
Like, here are all of theproblems.
This is how, like the way youhave set up a workplace, or the
way you know we believe that wehave to set up work, or, you
know, by default it has becomethis way.
(13:40):
Like I don't want to leave usin this hopeless space, right, I
want to give us some action,noble steps.
So one thing to look at is jobcontrol, to give control over
the time that work is happeningand how it is happening to the
(14:01):
employees as much as possible,and that takes a level of trust,
right.
So there have been quite a fewdifferent studies around
scheduling.
That's like one of those thingsthat's measurable, right, but
there were.
There was a stable schedulingstudy at GAP retail stores in
(14:25):
San Francisco and then there wasanother stable scheduling study
that happened, I believe it was, with Best Buy Stores in the
Midwest.
But basically, throughout thesestudies they showed that there
were positive outcomes whenschedules were stabilized.
The way that schedules werestabilized was by and these are
(14:50):
all part-time shift workers, sogiving two weeks advanced notice
of when someone needs to beworking, eliminating on-calls,
introducing tech-enabled shiftswapping, and so you know some
kind of a program where peoplecan access their own schedule
and shift and swap shifts withpeople directly through that
(15:14):
schedule that there was a stableshift structure and core
scheduling.
So this means that basicallythe shifts were the same week to
week and people were generallyscheduled for similar shifts
(15:34):
week to week, and then everyonewas working part-time plus, so
more than 20 hours, rather thanpotentially being scheduled for
like eight hours one week andthen you know 20 hours the next
week.
And they added additionaltargeted staffing for busier
times and what this showed likewhat came out of this was that
(16:00):
at those GAP stores this is theGAP study sales increased by 5%
and the margin with this retailkind of situation is 1% the
profit margin.
So when you're increasing by 5%,that's pretty significant.
The amount of productivity thatwas increased was 7%.
(16:23):
And then on top of that,employees self-reported some
positive health outcomes.
So there was an increase inpeople's rest, like their.
Their quality of sleepincreased.
And then also they reporteddecreased levels of stress, and
(16:49):
stress levels decreased acrossthe whole employee population.
They decreased more for peoplewho had more than one job.
I think it was 9% decrease forpeople who had more than one job
and a 15% decrease for peoplewho had care-taking
(17:10):
responsibilities, like childrenor elderly that they were taking
care of.
This is really significantHaving control over when I'm
working, knowing when I'mworking, knowing when I need to
be on and when I can be off.
You know when I can be takingcare of my responsibilities
(17:31):
outside of my job is integral tomaking significant changes in
the amount of stress that peopleare experiencing at work, and a
lot of these studies have beendone on shift work.
But that doesn't mean that theprincipals do not apply to
(17:54):
exempt employees, people who areearning salaries.
So I encourage you to thinkabout your salaried employees as
well.
You know, if you're consideringmaking some shifts and thinking
, you know, like, how do Irequest that a person does
(18:14):
something for me?
Do I send a demand or am Iasking in what way this person
can get it to me?
Thinking about the lines, thevarying lines of communication
that there are and again, thisalso applies to shift work but
thinking about all the differentlines of communication, like
when is it appropriate to text,when is it appropriate to call,
(18:37):
when is it appropriate to sendan email?
When is it appropriate to, youknow, get on Slack or Google
chat or you know whateversystems you're using for
communication?
When do you go there?
And then what is the expectedturnaround time once you're
there?
Thinking about your timelines,like do you need to ask someone
(19:02):
to do that this afternoon, or isit okay if they get it to you
in three days or early next weekor by the end of next week.
I think we live in a time of,you know, immediacy, right?
It's like I can go on Amazonand order something and have it
tomorrow, like basicallyanything I want, and people are
(19:30):
more stressed the more immediateneeds and the more immediate
demands there are on their time,and so we can't treat people
like this resource that is anever-ending source of energy,
because it's not.
People become depleted the moredemands and less control they
(19:51):
have over their time.
That brings us to this nextpiece, which is job demands.
In this space of job demands,we look at what are all the
components that make up this job, what are the types of skills
that are required and what isrequired of the person
physically in the workenvironment in order to be
(20:14):
successful in the job, and thenthis also gets into autonomy.
So, within this space of jobdemands, in order to create a
less stressful environment forsomeone in their work, we look
at what are those physicalcomponents Like.
(20:36):
Is this, for example, a job thatis happening where they have a
lot of travel, where they areexposed to a lot of heat or
exposed to a lot of cold?
Is it a job where the persondoes not have very much autonomy
, where they can't decide whento do something or how to do
(20:59):
something.
And when we look at job demands, some of them are not gonna
change, right, like, if I'm aroofer, I'm gonna be working on
a roof, it's gonna be hot, I'mgonna need to be safe and secure
in my work.
That's not gonna change.
Something that could change isthe amount of autonomy, for
(21:21):
example, that a person has overthe specific gear that they're
using, because they have apreference for certain gear over
other gear.
Right, this is kind of adynamic one to look at.
With regard to job demands,it's really specific to the
particular job the person hasand the work environment.
(21:42):
But generally, what you'retrying to look at is, among the
demands that there are on thisperson, are there ways to
decrease things that bring morestress and increase things that
bring more autonomy?
It's through autonomy thatpeople are able to feel like
(22:07):
they have control over thedemands of the job, and so,
really, if there are ways foryou to either change the demands
or give more autonomy, that isthe way to go.
This is why it's so beneficialto start to create training
(22:30):
programs, to create resourceswhere people can find
information themselves, tocreate peer and mentor networks
within the organization so thatthere is more support for job
demands.
The third thing that we can lookat which is a part of this job
(22:52):
strain model and updating thisjob strain model to reflect the
world that we live in now islooking at social support.
So creating well, really, itstarts with prioritizing
(23:16):
supporting employees, personaland family lives and supporting
social networks within theworkplace.
You have to make social supporta priority from both.
It has to be from the bottom upand the top down.
So this means in someorganizations people are
(23:41):
expected to be, for an example,an organization where you have
billable hours, where you'reexpecting everyone to be like
100% billable hours.
Well, that means there's notime for anything else.
There's no time for checking inwith your boss, there's no time
(24:03):
for meetings, there's no timefor emails, let alone is there
really time for you to get lunchor have a coffee with a
coworker, because it'simpossible really to have 100%
billable hours.
It means that you're gonna haveto work hours that are not your
work hours in order to be ableto get it that high.
(24:26):
So what you can do is look at autilization rate and determine
like, okay, maybe we'll have a70% utilization rate for
billable hours where people arebilling to projects, and then
people can have 30% of time todo other things.
Some of those things can bework related things, and then
other of those things can besocial things where people are
(24:49):
connecting.
The US surgeon general, at thetime of recording this a few
months ago, released theloneliness report that just says
that people in the UnitedStates in general are suffering
from an epidemic of loneliness,and in the end of that report
(25:10):
there are all of these sectionsfor different, for ways that
different types of organizationscan assist and help to curb
this impact of loneliness that'shappening.
And one of them talks about theworkplace, and it talks about
not just creating time and spacefor these kinds of social
(25:33):
networks to be created withinthe workplace, but also giving
managers the tools that theyneed in order to be able to
support employees' personal andfamily life more broadly.
Businesses are a part of anetwork.
We're not just the place wherea person works.
(25:56):
Right Through that person, weare connected to the broader
community.
So we're connected to thatperson's family and we're
connected to the social groupsthat that person is
participating in and we'reconnected to the different
places where they're spendingtheir time.
The more we're able to supportour people to fully experience
(26:20):
the fullness of their lives inour communities, the better off
we're all going to be.
If our employees are so drainedby the end of the day that all
they're doing is sitting on thecouch and watching TV which that
is totally fine Sometimes weall need that right but that
doesn't provide the same kind ofsupport as if they're going to
(26:43):
their chess club or theirknitting circle, or even going
to the brewery and seeing theirfriends having dinner somewhere.
There's not so much of adynamic experience of community
if people are so stressed thatthey're not even able to get out
(27:06):
of their house.
Right, and this is really a waythat business can impact the
vitality of community, and I'mgoing to be talking more about
that, actually, in the nextepisode.
Before I finish, I just wantedto talk a little bit about.
You know, in addition to thesethings, one of the things that I
(27:30):
have some experience in andjust like love, my brain loves
is lean management practices,and I just if like there are
things about efficiency thatjust make me so excited,
especially when people are ableto be efficient in a way that
(27:52):
saves them time, so that theyare able to be less stressed and
so that things can work better.
Like that just makes me soexcited.
But I think that when weimplement lean management
practices, we still have toorient toward the workers well
being, because we can, you know,be so into creating these lean
(28:16):
management practices and thisefficiency and saving all this
time and, you know, all thesewonderful outcomes.
But if we don't also build intothat the space for people to
connect, the space for people tolearn and to become autonomous,
the space for people to havecontrol over their schedules and
the ability to shift them asthey need to, and then we're
(28:39):
ultimately doing ourselves adisservice because we're going
to be increasing our turnoverand decreasing our ability
really to be profitable.
So just to kind of conclude thistalk there, you know, in this
research that I've been doing,there is some data about cost.
The data on like wellnessinitiatives versus work redesign
(29:05):
initiatives is that employeewellness programs now typically
cost in the realm of $700 peremployee and I'm pretty sure
that's per year Whereas workredesign efforts are more on the
side of $340 per employee.
(29:29):
It's also something that, witha workplace wellness program.
That's an investment thatyou're making year after year
after year, whereas if you'regoing through a process of
redesigning the work that'shappening in your organization,
it's something that's not goingto happen every year, right Like
you're going to do some kind ofa work, redesign effort and
(29:51):
then, typically, if you're goingto expand significantly again,
then you would have another lookat how the work is going to
happen.
So it's not something thathappens every year.
Something that maybe happensevery time there's a big shift
and depending on how much yourcompany is changing would
(30:12):
determine how frequently thatwould happen.
There's just like so muchresearch on this link between
the workplace and employeehealth.
This is really what I'm going tobe focusing my solo episodes
this season on, at least thefirst part of the season.
If any of this was of interestto you, if you would like me to
(30:37):
send you any additionalresources, we're going to link a
lot of things in the show notes, but if there's anything
specifically that you wanted toask me about or want to know
more about, please reach out.
I would love to have aconversation.
Hit subscribe to know when thenext episodes come out and, if
(30:59):
you're feeling generous, pleaseleave a review.
Reviews help other like-mindedfolks find their way to this
resource.
If something you heard todaybrought a smile to your face or
a spark to your heart and you'dlike to connect with me, there
are a few ways to do that.
One is my newsletter, where Iput most of my time and energy
(31:24):
when I'm not working withclients or with my family, or
working on this podcast Sorry,social media.
The newsletter is a mix of reallife stories, tips and tricks
and, of course, updates onwhat's happening with the
podcast.
Whenever something's going onwith me or in my business, it
(31:44):
always comes out there first.
Another resource that I havefor you is my guide to doing
work differently.
This guide takes you throughfour inquiries into how you can
build a more sustainable andequitable work environment for
yourself and your team.
It's a great place if you'relooking for somewhere to get
(32:07):
started.
Last, if you've got a burningquestion, a comment or a
situation you'd like my eyes on,you can email me.
All those links are in the shownotes.
Take care, brave a soul, catchyou next time.
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