The ongoing mental health crisis in the workplace is now forcing managers to take their employees’ emotional well-being into account
“It’s not personal; it’s strictly business.” This line, repeated throughout the gangster film *The Godfather*, sums up the classic view of management and work: the primary goal of business is profit, even if that means sacrificing all personal and social aspects of work.
However, the ongoing mental health crisis in the workplace is now forcing managers to take employees’ emotional well-being into account.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
To understand emotional well-being, we must first understand what emotions are: brief, intense reactions to specific events that matter to us and influence our behavior.
The study of emotions is vital, as they are much more than mere subjective experiences. Rather, they are what drive our actions—in the workplace, for example, sadness reduces performance, while anger leads to conflicts.
Therefore, it is not enough to simply say that someone “feels bad”: understanding their specific emotions is the first step toward understanding their behavior in the workplace.
Emotions at Work
To gain insight into people’s emotional lives in the workplace, Conversation conducted a study of 102 employees from various sectors. The goal was to clarify how and how often six basic emotions—happiness, surprise, sadness, disgust, fear, and anger—occur in everyday work life.
Participants reconstructed their workdays over a 15-day period, focusing on work-related events they considered particularly significant.
A total of 1,499 reports on these events were collected, and participants rated whether they were positive or negative and how novel or unpleasant they were.
The results revealed the following key points:
1. The workplace is generally a pleasant environment. Happiness was the most common emotion—present in 67% of the reported incidents—and the most intense, followed by surprise (54%). There may be a survival bias at play here, as people who constantly experience negative emotions tend to leave their jobs.
2. Negative emotions are less frequent but more intense. Anger (nearly 40%) and sadness (32%) were more prevalent than fear (26%) and disgust (20%). Furthermore, negative emotions rarely occur in isolation; they tend to occur in combination, particularly in the case of anger, sadness, and disgust.
3. Intensity had a multiplicative effect. It is not enough for a work-related event to be evaluated as good or bad. For an intense emotion to arise, the event causing it must be powerful—that is, it must be disruptive or novel. The interaction between the value and the intensity of the event predicts almost all emotions.
4. Fear was expressed differently from other emotions. It was the only emotion that depended exclusively on how intense—how much distress—an event caused, rather than on its positive or negative connotation. It also clearly depended on the characteristics or circumstances of each employee. Due to their personality (high scores on neuroticism and pessimism) or their professional roles, some employees were more prone to experiencing this emotion.
5. There were minimal differences between the sexes. Contrary to traditional stereotypes, it was found that gender had little effect on the intensity of employees’ emotions. Gender only affected the frequency with which certain emotions occurred: joy was more common among men, while disgust was more common among women.
What triggers each emotion?
An analysis of the 1,499 employee reports allowed the researchers to identify which situations serve as triggers for each emotion. Since the workplace is a social environment, most of these situations involved managers, coworkers, or customers.
– Joy was fueled by success and interpersonal relationships. It was most intense upon the successful completion of tasks, when employees enjoyed a collaborative environment, or when they received sincere appreciation, such as a thank-you note from a manager.
– Surprise resulted from the reversal of expectations. Among the factors that triggered it were unpredictable decisions, such as a client not renewing a contract, or unexpected gestures of support, such as a group lunch paid for by the company.
– Anger arose when employees perceived situations of injustice, public disrespect, humiliation, or the arbitrary obstruction of their goals.
– Sadness was associated with loss and unfulfilled expectations. It arose in the face of professional disappointments and failures or when a valued colleague left the team.
– Disgust in the workplace was usually related to ethics, as a reaction to morally repugnant or toxic behavior, harassment, or corporate hypocrisy.
– Fear was triggered by threats and safety concerns. Unpredictable supervisors and structural instability within the company are some of the factors that can trigger this powerful warning sign.
The Foundations of Well-Being in the Workplace
Research has clearly shown that the workplace is an environment rich in emotional experiences. This means that every management decision, every change to the schedule, or every comment can trigger an emotional chain reaction.
Although it is not possible to avoid all adversities, the human organism can actively shape its emotional climate by deliberately fostering positive experiences and seeking to mitigate the impact of negative events.
Caring for our teams, however, requires all of us to view work not merely as a place where business activities take place. Our workplace is, in essence, a community rich in emotional bonds and deserves our special attention.
Source: in.gr
