The pandemic spotlighted the connection between work and well-being. A method to increase happiness at work is stronger connections with colleagues. (Story aired on All Things Considered on Feb. 18, 2023.)
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Since the pandemic started, office tendencies like the nice resignation, quiet quitting and heightened burnout have highlighted the connection between work and well-being. So how will you enhance the connections at work that may result in better happiness? NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee has some insights.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: Decades of analysis present that heat human connections are important for folks’s well being and well-being. Dr. Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist at Harvard and directs one of many longest-running research on what makes folks thrive.
ROBERT WALDINGER: The individuals who had the warmest connections with different folks weren’t simply happier, they stayed more healthy longer. And they lived longer.
CHATTERJEE: The outcomes of that research, which has adopted folks over a few generations, are the topic of Waldinger’s new ebook, “The Good Life.”
WALDINGER: We get little hits of well-being, if you’ll, from every kind of relationships – from associates, household, work colleagues. All of that appears to affirm our belonging, appears to affirm that we’re seen and acknowledged by others.
CHATTERJEE: And one of the simplest ways to construct that sense of connection and belonging at work begins with small steps. For instance, Waldinger says, consider a colleague you have not seen shortly.
WALDINGER: You may ship them a textual content or ship them an e-mail and even name them on the cellphone and simply say, hello, I used to be considering of you and wished to attach.
CHATTERJEE: Those small actions, he says, usually convey little doses of happiness.
WALDINGER: What we all know with strengthening your relationships is that very tiny steps can result in responses that can make you’re feeling good.
CHATTERJEE: And if you wish to make new associates at work, Waldinger suggests leaning into your curiosity about your colleagues.
WALDINGER: So you may, for instance, determine simply to note one thing about anyone else at work who you’d prefer to get to know. Notice one thing they’re displaying on their desk that could be private.
CHATTERJEE: And ask them about it.
WALDINGER: Because one of many issues we all know is that after we are interested by somebody in a pleasant method, it is flattering. And it engages folks in dialog.
CHATTERJEE: These conversations, he says, can result in deeper connections and friendships. But, he provides, leaders in workplaces have a giant position to play, too, in fostering a tradition of connection and belonging.
WALDINGER: You want leaders to say being private with one another is efficacious, it issues. And it begins on the high. When that occurs, the tradition can shift in an organization the place folks are inclined to know one another higher after which care about one another.
CHATTERJEE: And that may go a great distance in making a happier, extra engaged office.
Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR News.
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