What People Want Out of Work – Validation and Sense of Belonging

Went to a presentation today by Dr Sally Cockburn - or as many people in Melbourne would know her as Dr Feelgood – a well-known media personality with TV and readio appearances and shows over the past decade and more on health issues.  She is now also a corporate speaker, presenting on stress and health in the workplace.

One particular point from today was that two of the main things that people want out of work is validation and to feel like they belong.  Validation in the sense that the work outputs that they perform are acknowledged and the ideas that they have for improvement are given a hearing.  Sense of belonging as people at work want to feel part of a team and community. 

Having these two items would defray a lot of stress building up in the workplace and improve many relationships at work.  Many years ago, I was on a working party looking at Harassment in the Workplace and many people identified that harassment was caused by work-related issues.  Now some of these might have been confusing harassment with particular abrasive management styles but the important thing is that if they were listened to and had good connections with others in the group, then stress and feelings of harassment would have been alleviated.

Sounds so easy doesn’t it? But as with many behaviours, they are ingrained and we need to becoming aware of them in order to change how we operate and relate to others.