“Find out what you like doing best, and get someone to pay you for it.” – Katharine Whitehorn
It is time to look inwards when answering this question. Maybe a very broad statement that we can narrow down but great resignation has shown that people are looking for peace and joy at work.
How do we break that down? Is this an unusual answer? Should we not ask for that? Isn’t that our goal when we try to make a living? We are humans with emotions and we do not just work to meet our ends, we want more than that.
Is supporting the emotions and wellbeing of people against capitalism? What is the root cause of this problem? What are we looking for in the next opportunity?
→ We want to work for a company, which is formed like a community. They support each other in sadness and celebrate happiness together. We can do that even working remotely in COVID times. Though we do not connect at the watercooler or coffee machine or not randomly go out with our colleagues for lunch, we can be empathetic to them and develop the patience to understand them. People have a very low tolerance of working for a narcissist or higher sensitivity to toxic culture more than ever.
→ Support to mental health. COVID is not an easy time, working remotely and not being able to socialize adds its toll of not meeting people in person. It is even harder for people who do not have family close by. One of my good friends left the country to join her family, after selling her house in just a short period of having her green card as COVID hit. The green card, she decided to let go, for which she waited for so long while working in a difficult environment for a narcissist manager and being underpaid. Due to burnout and stress, anxiety and imposter syndrome are some of the common conditions that can kick in and the performance can go down drastically of a performing employee.
→ A manager should act like a coach, mentor, and leader. Coaching with compassion, mentoring with patience, and showing rich leadership and invisible leadership is absolutely important during this time. Companies should have training programs available to train their managers, people need support more than ever. An unfit manager can destroy the culture of the company easily. Trust your people, be flexible for them. Understand their individual needs and give them space. While making a new policy, get the poll from people.
→ Growth Opportunity for an individual. People are tired of higher inflation and lower pay. They need growth in terms of career advancement, promotions, freedom to explore various paths, be able to openly discuss their needs and wants, ask stupid questions without being judged, make mistakes, and opportunity to correct that and get paid well while focusing on their personal development and quality time with family.
→ Work for purpose. At the end of the day, work is work but what problem in society can we solve while working together on a product or a project? How can we make this world a better place? People want to focus on working on something higher than mundane work. They want to be part of ‘why’ to stay motivated and add value.
People are looking for all of the above to feel fulfilled, satisfied, peaceful, and happy and it is not too much to ask. These are basic human emotional rights that every human should have.
