Surveys indicate that many workers are unhappy and tired, awaiting their chance to escape current conditions for more promising elsewhere's. Once the economic recovery more clearly comes into view, employers face the prospect of significant defections and high turnover. And that may be the good news. The bad news is that many people who would like to flee either can't or won't, and that the unhappy and tired will still be both -- and still be working for you.
My own observations within companies are anecdotal, but I have noticed rising tensions among time-pressured employees and increasing labor disputes involving workload. The dial on basic civility is reaching condition "red" and the performances of the physically and mentally drained are faltering. Exhortations about sucking it up, toughing it out, and pulling one's weight are themselves getting tiring - and everyone already is tired enough from working with greatly depleted staffs over prolonged periods.
I have a couple of suggestions about what employers can do now, the first of which has nothing to do with bees or the hive. It is a simple thing we can do that bees cannot: express gratitude for the hard work people are doing. Bad leaders think they are doing the workers a favor by keeping them employed and, therefore, have no reason to thank them; great leaders know that they are indebted to the people who selflessly work extra to keep the company vibrant, so appreciating others' efforts is natural. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing most employees have not been personally thanked once in the past two years.
The second suggestion does comes from the hive. Bees never compromise their long-term ability to perform. They do this by working smartly and by using as little energy as possible in meeting their collection goals. Bees' wings wear out so they have to be careful about how they work so they can live as long a productive life as possible. Consequently, their nectar gathering is net of the energy expended - they try to get the most for the least by, for example, opting for flowers that are closer to the hive, more closely bunched, and easier to manipulate, all else being equal.
Therefore, what would a bee do under the circumstances that companies find themselves in today? First, they would use this time as a way to reassess the work that is being done as well as how it is being done. Do you need to do what you have done in the past and must you perform it in the very same way? In essence, can you get the same results by doing less? I'll bet you can.
The second thing bees would do is avoid running themselves into the ground. Bees within the hive strive to maintain their health by keeping the hive free of pathogens and pacing themselves. Bees take periods of rest to recuperate. The bees also periodically do different jobs so they aren't always doing the hardest most dangerous tasks in the field as foragers. There is a truism within organizational development circles to never exhaust the organization's long-term ability to perform. That is precisely the objective of the colony. Managers, then, need to be aware of the work that people are doing and judiciously deploy them in a way that will preserve their physical and mental status. It's easy: when someone you see has worked long hours on the same arduous or highly stressful task for an extended period, give them a break. Find something else value-added they may do, not only as a respite from their prior routines, but as a way to re-energize them.
Here's what I know: if employers don't start tending to employees' psyches and capacities to productively persist on the job now, they will have to grapple with far worse problems later.
To read more and to order my book, please visit my website: http://www.thewisdomofbees.com/
