There’s a scene in the drama series Mad Men when junior ad exec Peggy Olson complains to her mercurial boss Don Draper, “You never say thank you.” Don peevishly replies: “That’s what the money is for!”
Harvard Business School Professors Rawi E. Abdelal and Thomas J. DeLong cite that moment in a new working paper, “On the Origins of Our Discontent,” as they examine a frustrated workforce and point out that the Great Resignation has become synonymous with workplaces that lack connection.
“For decades both liberals and conservatives have wrongly identified the main economic conflict between employers and employees as ones of material benefits.”
After all, it’s not all about making money, says DeLong, a Baker Foundation Professor of Management Practice at HBS. What employees really crave, the paper argues, is meaning. “You and I need to build trust in one another, so I know you are all-in, head, heart, and soul,” he says. “I know you are not going to want to disappoint me, and you know I am not going to disappoint you.”
For decades, the authors say, both liberals and conservatives have wrongly identified the main economic conflict between employers and employees as ones of material benefits. Now, they say, we are reaping the consequences of that misapprehension.
Employees left their jobs at alarming rates over the past year as they reassessed their lives in the face of COVID-19. Other workers are “quietly quitting,” resolving to do the bare minimum to pay the bills and not willing to go above and beyond in their roles. All this while inflation spirals. Abdelal, who is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at HBS, and DeLong make the case that the remedy is understanding the psychological needs of employees, and improving how managers convey to workers that they are part of something meaningful.
“Many of these same frustrations are being expressed in national politics,” Abdelal says. “This moment of populist backlash is in part a reflection of societies that feel that their voices—and their disappointments—have gone unheard for too long.”
Employees are feeling alienated
Abdelal and DeLong see all of these phenomena as stemming from a common cause: the rise of contractual relationships with employees in place of emotional investment. “We’ve moved more and more from the human side of enterprise to the financial,” DeLong says.
“You need to fill people’s intrinsic motivational needs as opposed to making it simply contractual.”
In the executive education courses DeLong teaches at Harvard, he has conducted a simple exercise—asking participants to write down the initials of people in their business careers who “cared deeply” about their welfare. Older executives in their 50s and 60s, he says, are able to easily write down at least three people; those in their 40s might write down two; those in their 30s barely relate to the question.
It’s no wonder then that employees feel alienated and disenfranchised from their jobs, Abdelal and DeLong write. The antidote, they propose, is to replace contractual relationships with covenantal ones. “You need to fill people’s intrinsic motivational needs,” DeLong says, “as opposed to making it simply contractual.”
Make changes big and small
That requires a shift in thinking on both a macro and micro level, the authors argue.
On the macro level, companies need to send employees the message that they are valuable by retaining them, rather than resorting to layoffs when times get tough. For instance, during the pandemic, some executives took a pay cut so lower-level workers could remain on the payroll at some companies. On a more micro level, Abdelal and DeLong say, creating a covenantal relationship means helping employees find purpose in their work.
Rather than telling workers what to do, managers should ask questions, such as: “How are you? How can I help you? What’s one thing I can do to be a better manager?” DeLong says. “Then I’d say, ‘My goal is to support you so that you increase the amount of time you are at your best.’”
A workplace anxiety problem
Worry mounts among employees when they feel purposeless, insignificant, and isolated, the authors say.
Certain types of workers are more prone to feeling this way than others. Some high achievers, for instance, flail about in feedback voids that make them doubt their worth. The essay cites an employee who was waiting for six months for a review from his boss; when the manager finally gave him feedback, “by then the associate had pulled away emotionally and psychologically. The associate had spent hours constructing a narrative that highlighted to the associate that he was no longer central to the organization. The associate was ripe to bolt for another work environment, another boss, other potential colleagues,” the paper recounts.
It’s also important for managers to remember that not every employee wants to be a standout star, and to support those “solid citizens” who build an organization’s backbone. The authors express concern that such workers will be “overlooked,” as many managers give outsize support for those deemed future leaders.
Managers need an employee ‘owner’s manual’
Practically speaking, DeLong suggests bosses ask employees for an “owner’s manual” describing their strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies, including when and how they are most productive in their work, so bosses can better manage them. “The most effective leaders are those that have created mechanisms to find out what’s going on inside other people’s heads quickly,” he says.
“Paying employees fairly is just one way to show them they are valued, but it’s also important to give them a sense of purpose, caring, and community.”
Paying employees fairly is just one way to show them they are valued, he says—but it’s also important to give them a sense of purpose, caring, and community.
By flipping expectations of a boss-employee relationship and authentically expressing interest in an employee’s self-growth, managers can reduce feelings of anxiety and isolation and replace them with feelings of empowerment and connectedness, the authors write. That, in turn, benefits both workers and companies.
“If we focus on how, at the micro level, we can restore a sense of purpose, ensure that the significance of work is recognized, and cultivate enduring connections,” they write, “then we can together make extraordinary progress toward making our system one in which it could be worth living—and one that people would believe is worth preserving.”
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Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu.
Image: iStockphoto/Daniel de la Hoz