Emotions at work are inevitable, global HR consulting firm McLean & Co. underscored in a resource released July 16.
With ongoing economic uncertainty, a charged political landscape, heightened exposure to world crises, concerns about AI, and blurred boundaries between their jobs and home, employees can no longer separate emotions from work, the firm explained in a media release.
Yet, instead of avoiding emotions altogether, “organizations need to be proactive about how emotions and work can coexist to enable workplaces where everyone can thrive,” McLean advised.
As a starting point, organizations need to acknowledge that all workplaces have an emotional culture, the resource noted; leaders should also understand where their organization’s emotional culture fits along a spectrum of three main scenarios.
On one extreme are what McLean calls “emotionally suppressive” environments. These are marked by “retributive behaviors, toxic positivity, burnout and avoidance,” the report pointed out.
Along the other extreme are “emotionally unregulated” cultures, identified by impulsive behaviors, gossip, disrespect and a lack of boundaries, McLean said.
By contrast, in a healthy emotional culture, “employees acknowledge, cope and express emotions appropriately based on organizational norms and values,” according to the resource.
“Creating an emotionally healthy culture founded on inclusion, psychological safety and conflict resolution is critical to organizational performance and fostering employee engagement,” Grace Ewles, McLean’s director of HR research and advisory services, stated in the media release.
Importantly, HR is not the be-all and end-all for getting to and maintaining this environment, McLean said.
Rather, improving and sustaining a balanced and healthy culture “is a shared accountability and requires a collective effort from individuals, teams and organizational leaders,” the resource stressed. Every person contributes, from executives to front-line employees, it said.
While emotionally healthy work cultures are critical to employee well-being, according to the resource, in a broader sense, they may also be key to attracting and retaining workers, a September 2023 report based on HP’s Work Relationship Index found.
Employees want to work for an employer with empathetic and emotionally intelligent leaders, and they would be willing to take a pay cut for such a job, according to the report.
The HP findings align with a report released a few months earlier showing that the shifting dynamics of employee attraction and retention require employees to prioritize employee well-being and satisfaction.
The report, by health and productivity research non-profit Integrated Benefits Institute, found that employers improved retention by showing emotional intelligence and implementing tangible strategies, such as flexible work options, increased communication, employee development programs and a focus on diversity and inclusion.
Leaders who show emotional intelligence and address their organization’s emotional culture may also be necessary to counter a concerning trend: Employee and HR perceptions of CEO empathy have steadily declined since 2016, reaching an all-time low in 2023, a report from HR benefits and technology services company Businessolver found.
The report defined workplace empathy as “the ability to understand and experience the feelings of another.”
“When we understand what emotions are and what they are not, we’re less likely to misinterpret our own emotions and reinforce negative thoughts around them or mislabel and stereotype others based on their emotions,” McLean’s Ewles explained.
“For example, feeling sad doesn’t have to mean someone is in a bad mood, while having a bad day doesn’t necessarily mean someone is a negative person,” Ewles said.
